JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Conservative scoliosis therapy in the form of assisted physiotherapeutic scoliosis exercises is supplemented by self-contained training at home, depending on the approach (e.g., Schroth, SEAS, etc.). Complex exercises, lack of awareness of the importance of training and missing supervision by therapists often lead to uncer-tainty and reduced motivation, which in turn reduces the success of the home-based therapy. Increasing digitalization in the healthcare sector offers opportuni-ties to close this gap. However, research is needed to analyze the requirements and to translate the potential of digital tools into concrete solution concepts.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to evaluate potentials for optimizing scoliosis home ther-apy in the topics of motivation, assistive devices, and digital tools.

Methods:

In collaboration with the Institute of Physiotherapy at the Jena University Hospital, a survey was initiated, which adresses scoliosis patients and physical therapists. A digital questionnaire was created for each target group and distributed via physio-therapies, scoliosis forums and the Bundesverband für Skoliose Selbsthilfe e. V. via link and QR code. The survey collected data on demographics, therapy, exercise habits, motivation, assistive devices, and digital tools. Descriptive statistics were used for the evaluation.

Results:

Of 141 survey participants, 72 scoliosis patients (62 female, 10 male) with an aver-age age of 40 years and 30 scoliosis therapists completed the respective question-naires. The analysis of home-based therapy showed that scoliosis patients exercise less per week (two times or less; 45/72; 62.5%) than they are recommended to do by therapists (at least three times; 53/72; 73.6%). Patients indicated that their mo-tivation could be increased by practicing together with friends and acquaintances (54/72; 75%), a supportive therapy device (48/72; 66.7%) or a digital profile (46/72; 63.9%). The most important assistive devices, which are comparatively rarely used in home-based therapy, include balance boards (20/72; 27.8%), wall bars (23/72; 31.9%), mirrors (36/72; 50%) and long bars (40/72; 55.6%). Thera-pists saw the greatest benefit of digital tools for scoliosis therapy in increasing mo-tivation (26/30; 87%), improving home therapy (25/30; 83%), monitoring therapy progress (25/30; 83%), and demonstrating exercise instructions (24/30; 80%).

Conclusions:

In this study, we investigated whether there is potential for improvement in the home-based scoliosis therapy. For this purpose, we asked scoliosis patients and therapists via online questionnaires about the topics: Exercise habits, outpatient and home-based therapy, motivation, supportive devices, and digital tools. The re-sults showed that a lack of motivation, suitable training equipment and tools for self-control lead to a low training workload. From the perspective of the patients surveyed, this problem can be addressed by community training with friends or acquaintances, a supportive therapy device and digital elements such as apps with training instructions and user profiles.