Assessment of the Quality of Movement for Patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Goal of the work is to verify if there exists a significant difference in the quality of movement measured via virtual reality (VR) technology between two groups of patients diagnosed with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Grouping is made according to geographic regions; Group 1 is from Zagreb, Group 2 from Vukovar. Another goal of the work is to verify whether there is a significant improvement from initial to final measurements over a one year period in the results of all patients from both groups. Hypothesis: there is no significant difference in the quality of movement between two groups of patients, as obtained through VR tests. The second hypothesis is that there is no significant difference in the results of specific VR tests for AIS between initial and final measurements of all the examinee; respectively, the conventional therapy program in both groups doesn’t produce significant results in the direction of improvement. The sample: each group is comprised of 5 patients with AIS diagnosis, between the ages of 12–18, of both genders. The patients have a double scoliotic curve with Cobb value between 37 and 46 degrees, and are being treated with classical physiotherapeutic methods for AIS, at clinics in Zagreb and Vukovar. Methodology: VR tests for assessment of the quality of movement are a part of the System for Diagnosis and Control in Kinesiology (SYDACK) constructed at the Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Zagreb, as described in the dissertation: VR in physiotherapy of patients with AIS (Filipović, 2011). SYDACK is an original Croatian product, containing 4 VR tests for evaluating the quality of movement: diagonal sliding to the right, diagonal sliding to the left, sliding and hip elevation. Results are analyzed via a t-test for small independent samples and a t-test for small dependent samples. In 93.75% cases there is no significant difference between results of the two groups, as obtained by all 4 VR tests. The analysis shows there is no geographical dependence in the quality of motion with AIS, which confirms the initial hypothesis. In 81.25% cases there is no significant difference in the results of specific VR tests between initial and final measurements. In 18.75% cases there is a significant difference in the direction of improvement.