Prevalence and factors associated with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in Shanghai, China: an artificial intelligence-assisted screening approach.
AI-assisted screening estimated adolescent idiopathic scoliosis prevalence near 3.8% in Shanghai students.
Prevalence and factors associated with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in Shanghai, China: an artificial intelligence-assisted screening approach.
To investigate the prevalence of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (adolescent idiopathic scoliosis) and major modifiable factors associated with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis among school students in Shanghai, China, and assess the feasibility and validated accuracy of AI-assisted 3D screening in school health management.
A multistage stratified cluster sampling design was employed in this cross-sectional study, conducted from July 2024 to June 2025.
roughly 1 in 26 students screened had scoliosis
Among the 5,026 screened students, 160 adolescent idiopathic scoliosis cases were confirmed among 185 rescreen-positive students, and 2 additional adolescent idiopathic scoliosis cases were identified among 300 randomly verified screen-negative students.
Thoracic curves and Cobb angles of 10°- < 20° were most common.
Girls and middle school students had higher crude radiographic detection rates than boys and primary school students, respectively.
The AI-assisted structured-light screening workflow showed IPW-adjusted sensitivity of 0.832, specificity of 0.995, PPV of 0.865, NPV of 0.993, and overall accuracy of 0.989.
Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis represents a non-negligible spinal health burden among school students in Shanghai. Most factors associated with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis are modifiable.
The AI-assisted structured-light screening workflow demonstrated acceptable diagnostic accuracy and promising feasibility for large-scale school-based health screening and management integration.