To the Editor.
—In May 1993, two articles were published in JAMA concerning school screening for scoliosis.1,2 These came from the US Public Health Service with no author listed. The concluding statement was, "There is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against routine screening of adolescents for idiopathic scoliosis."
The Scoliosis Research Society, founded in 1966 for research and education about scoliosis and other spinal deformities, has strongly supported the concept of school screening for all types of spinal deformities. We therefore disagree strongly with the position statement of the US Public Health Service quoted above.
There is sufficient evidence to recommend for routine school screening for scoliosis. There are now two highly accurate, highly significant studies demonstrating that bracing can have a positive effect on the natural history of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.
The first, a study of 1020 brace-treated adolescent idiopathic patients by Lonstein and Winter.3 These
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