School screening for scoliosis in India. The evaluation of a scoliometer.

All school children in Patiala City (25,376) were examined to find out the incidence of scoliosis. There were 12,934 boys and 12,442 girls. Their ages ranged from 5 to 18 years. Adam's forward-bending test and a newly designed "Scoliometer" was used to detect and measure the rib hump in all cases. There was an overall incidence of scoliosis of 0.13%. This was higher in boys (0.15%) than in girls (0.10%). The majority of the curves were mild (81.25%). Paralytic scoliosis was the major group (43.7%) and most the result of poliomyelitis. The incidence was higher in the low socioeconomic group (0.4%), compared to the middle (0.12%) and high (0.01%) income groups.