scoliosis screnning in the UK

[Jules]

Hi
I had surgery in Jnauary as many of you may know, but before I was diagonsed with scoliosis I had never heard of it before. I havve read on here that there is scoliosis screening in US schools and I was wondering why that didn't happen here in the UK, becuase I feel there needs to be more awarness of it in the UK as many young people have it and may never be aware
Thanks Jules xxx

[lin515]

Jules,

I am in the US and my daughters school does not do scolioisis screenings. Her scolioisis was diagnosed on an xray for an unrelated matter. I absolutely agree with you and do not understand why it is not mandatory as early intervention may mean the difference between surgery or not.

Linda

[Mary Lou]

Hi Jules...

As you'll find out, every state in the US is different. Linda in New York says her daughter's school doesn't screen for Scoliosis. We live in Pennsylvania (basically right next door to New York) and our school screens our kids in the seventh grade. I asked why they didn't screen earlier and they said since our kids are required to have a physical exam before starting sixth grade, they assume the family doctor is checking them. My daughter's family doctor diagnosed her at her 12 year old check-up which was in the summer before starting seventh grade.

Mary Lou

[Jules]

Hi
thanks for your replies, sorry I did not realise that not all schools in the US had scoliosis screnning.
Does anyone know if there is screnning in the UK becuase I definately believe there should be more awareness of scoliosis in not just the UK but everywhere.
Thanks Jules xxx


Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year!

[Alison]

Jules

If you go into the Scoli Association of UK's message board http://www.scoliosis-support.org (I can't remember the last bit of the address if you google it you might find it) and post whether they do scoli screenings anywhere in UK, some one would probably be better able to help you find an answer to your question

Some of what I've written below might also apply to "reasonings in the UK"

They used to do the scoliosis test in Australia, I think they stopped it in the late 1980's (from memory when I asked Mum one day, but it may have been earlier). There "reasoning" for stopping it, from what I remember part of it was money, and they reckoned (supposedly they had some statistics for it) that they didn't find enough people "with it" to warrant it.

Well I think (add a choice word in here) is quite "strange" (nice word, not my choice word). They test for stuff (in WA at least) such as eyesight in Year 6, and the test for scoliosis (or the chance there could be presence of it) is not difficult to do. It could easily be done by the school nurse, community school nurse, teacher, phys ed teacher at the same time as other "standard health" tests

Also giving out a pamphalet is not effective (in my opinion), it often doesn't get home in the kids schoolbags, parents don't understand it, or it gets misplaced.

It IS A SIMPLE TEST (i agree with you), and if at least it was tested, and there was a suspicion of it, a parent could be informed and then take their child to the GP for further testing, and then action could be taken earlier rather then when it was "progressed and too late for anything".

Also scoliosis can devolop at any time (or progress) and even if it wasn't detected one year, by the next, in the year it wasn't detected, it could develop and progress unknown. I think some states in America even test more than once in the school years. Ie Year 4, Year 6, Year 9. And also with puberty (when a lot of curves devlop or greatly progress) begining earlier and earlier, it is almost impossible to put "magic numbers" on giving out a pamphalet.

Scoliosis is the great unknown in the wider community, and one of the least understood "medical conditions", but it also creates a large amount of fear.

I was in kindy/pre primary in the late 1980's and we were tested for scoliosis by the community health nurse when a whole bunch of other stuff was done (one of the last years to do so). Strangely (and did my Mum have a go at the nurse for it), the nurse wrote on my form Spine: Straight. Despite the fact, my scoliosis was diagnosed at 15 months of age, and I was in a brace 23/24 hours a day with curves in the high sixties, low fifties (just a little obvious, you'd think ;-)

Alison