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Scientific free Tools for Clinical Practice: ISYQOL and IS-GROWTH

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With a demanding condition such as scoliosis, it is essential to build a relationship of trust with the patient and guide them through a treatment path that allows for a good quality of life.

For this reason, at ISICO we have developed two free tools available online.

ISYQOL – Italian Spine Youth Quality of Life

Originally created as a questionnaire in which our patients could describe the impact of brace treatment on their daily life, ISYQOL has evolved into a digital model consisting of 10 questions, allowing anyone to evaluate their own well-being in the presence of scoliosis, kyphosis, or other spinal disorders.

Its strength lies in being based on the concerns expressed directly by patients, making it particularly suitable for adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis who have not undergone surgery. Over the years, it has been translated and validated into several languages ( English, Chinese, Polish, Korean, Arabic, Persian, French, Spanish, Greek, and Turkish) and is now recognised as one of the most reliable questionnaires for measuring quality of life in brace wearers.

Measure your ISYQOL online

IS-GROWTH – Idiopathic Scoliosis Graphical Representation Of Worsening Trend of Natural History

IS-GROWTH is a visual model that shows the expected evolution of a scoliosis curve in each patient during growth (pre-pubertal, pubertal, and post-pubertal phases).

Developed from more than 3,000 radiographs of nearly 2,000 untreated patients, and validated on more than 500 additional cases, the model reaches 95% accuracy after correcting for radiographic measurement error. The graph displays a range of expected progression (between minimum and maximum scenarios), into which the patient’s real clinical data are gradually added over time.

This tool has proven extremely useful in clearly communicating the natural history of scoliosis and in supporting long-term treatment decisions during growth.

Access it here – IS-GROWTH online

Watch the video alongside to see how to use them in practice.

ISYQOL video: https://youtu.be/bFLuaTNrsA4  
Is-Growth video: https://youtu.be/0dt_38tTiCQ

ISYQOL: the international version

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With a pathology such as scoliosis that requires demanding treatment, at Isico we have known for years how fundamental it is to establish a relationship of trust with the patient and to have him adhere to the therapy, ensuring the possibility of a good quality of life in a brace. For this reason, years ago, a questionnaire was developed where our patients could express their assessment of the impact of wearing a brace on their daily lives.
From these questionnaires, the next step was to develop an online model made available to everyone, where, in ten questions, the patient himself evaluates his own well-being with regard to spinal pathologies (kyphosis, scoliosis, or other).
This is how the ISYQOL (Italian Spine Youth Quality of Life) questionnaire was born, which is based on the concerns expressed by patients and has proven to be particularly appropriate in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) who have not been treated surgically. 

In recent years, several studies have been published with adaptations and validations of the original Italian version in different languages. 
The latest revision is an international version published recently in the European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, a “Cross-cultural Validation of the Questionnaire: The ISYQOL International”.
The ISYQOL Italian version was translated into six languages using the forward-backwards procedure. The conceptual equivalence of the items’ content was verified, and any inconsistency was resolved by consensus. Finally, patients were asked to complete the ISYQOL before their consultation or treatment session without external help and without being influenced by their parents.
This work aims to assess the ability of ISYQOL to provide an accurate, cross-culturally equivalent measure of the quality of life for young people with idiopathic scoliosis from seven different cultures and languages (i.e. Canadian English, Canadian French, Greek, Italian, Polish, Spanish, and Turkish).
After this last revision, the questionnaire is now available in many languages. In addition to Italian and English, we have Chinese, Polish, Korean, Arabic, Persian, French, Spanish, and Greek versions.

ISYQOL: Polish adaptation study published

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The study Polish Adaptation of the Italian Spine Youth Quality of Life Questionnaire has just been published (Edyta Kinel, Krzysztof Korbel, Piotr Janusz, Mateusz Kozinoga, Dariusz Czaprowski, Thomas Kotwicki), developed by the University of Medical Science of Poznan and from Olsztyn University, Bydgoska for the adaptation of our Italian Spine Youth Quality of Life Questionnaire (ISYQOL) into Polish (ISYQOL-PL).

Recall that ISYQOL is the questionnaire developed by Isico that measures the health-related quality of life of adolescents with spinal deformities and has proved particularly appropriate in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) not treated surgically.
The questionnaire is available for free online on a dedicated website, where you can also find the English and Polish versions of the questionnaire:   https://www.isyqol.org

The study aimed to carry on the process of the cultural adaptation of the Italian Spine Youth Quality of Life Questionnaire (ISYQOL) into Polish (ISYQOL-PL). The prior hypothesis was: the ISYQOL-PL questionnaire is reliable and appropriate for adolescents with a spinal deformity. Fifty-six adolescents (mean age 13.8 ± 1.9) were enrolled.
The ISYQOL questionnaire is based on patients’ concerns and has been shown to be particularly appropriate in AIS and SJK patients undergoing non-surgical management. The ISYQOL is a 20 items questionnaire. The process of the cross-cultural adaptation of the ISYQOL-PL was performed following the guidelines set up by the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA). The implementation of this method includes the following steps: forward translation, back-translation and expert panel, pre-testing and cognitive interviewing, development of the final version. The total sample size was decided based on previous recommendations for validation studies.

What about study’s conclusions? “The ISYQOL-PL is a brief and practical tool for quantifying HRQoL in adolescents with a spine deformity – comments the coordinator of the study, the spine surgeon Dr. Tomasz Kotwicki from the Department of Spine Disorders and Pediatric Orthopedics –  Filling in the questionnaire takes less than 10 minutes to be completed. The ISYQOL-PL questionnaire is reliable and can be used in adolescents with spinal deformities”. 

Full text available here:  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34066225/