The Effects of Schroth Corrective Exercises on Straight Length in Adolescents With Triple-Curve Thoracic Idiopathic Scoliotic

Adolescent scoliosis is defined as a spinal deformity in a skeletally mature patient with a Cobb angle of >10° in the coronal plane. Scoliosis is a condition that occurs in the spinal column at three–plane, involving the skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems. It ultimately affects the biomechanics of body movements, such as walking, running, and jogging. Muscular imbalance in different parts of the spine is among the causes of interstitial scoliosis; it can appear as weak and short patterns on the sides of the spine, causing side–and–sided anomalies in the spinal column of the individual. Different approaches are available to correct this condition. In this regard, the Schroth approach claims to provide a favorable effect on the correction of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the effect of Schroth corrective exercise on straight length in adolescents with scoliosis.

This was a quasi–experimental study with a pretest–posttest and a control group design. This research was performed on 30 adolescents with scoliosis. The mean±SD age of the study subjects was 14.85±3.73 years; their mean±SD Body Mass Index (BMI) equaled 20.41±1.34 kg/m2, and their mean±SD Cobb angle was measured as 16.54±2.12 degree. The inclusion criteria of the study included having triangular thoracic scoliosis, having a thoracic arch angle of 10–20 degrees respecting the scale of Cobb angle and the radiograph in the patients’ medical records, and an age range of 12–18 years. The exclusion criteria of the study were non–participation in two consecutive training sessions and three non–consecutive sessions, the lack of proper cooperation, pain, and dissatisfaction to continue research. The 8–week training program of the intervention group was considered as an independent variable. The step length, i.e., measured using video recording by a camera, was considered as a dependent variable. For investigating differences between the control and intervention groups, we used the Independent Samples t–test. Besides, the differences between pretest and posttest stages were examined applying Dependent Samples t–test at the significance level of 0.05 in SPSS.

The results of the Dependent Samples t–test revealed a significant difference between the pretest and posttest values of the intervention group (p=0.001); however, there was no significant difference between the pretest and posttest values of the control group (p=0.106). The results of the Independent Samples t–test suggested a significant difference between the control and intervention groups (p=0.002). The stride length of the intervention group has increased by 8.3 cm. The effectiveness of this intervention on Cohen’s D scale was calculated as 1.66, indicating the high efficacy of this exercise intervention.

According to the present study data, there was an increase of about 8.3 cm in the stride length of the study subjects. Thus, Schroth corrective exercise significantly impacted the stride length of adolescents with triple–curve thoracic idiopathic scoliotic.