Prevalence and screening features of scoliosis among adolescents aged 7 to 18 years in Shanghai China

Abstract Background Adolescent scoliosis is an important school-health concern, but local screening evidence from large urban communities remains limited. Methods We conducted a population-based school screening analysis using a de-identified dataset of 7979 students aged 7 to 18 years from Fenglin Subdistrict, Xuhui District, Shanghai. The dataset included sex, age group, scoliosis status, and recorded screening features involving foot/ankle posture, body posture, waist asymmetry, and spinal segment findings. Detection rates were calculated by subgroup, screening-feature distributions were summarized, and sex- and age-adjusted odds ratios were estimated using logistic regression. Results Among 7979 valid records, 255 scoliosis cases were identified, corresponding to an overall detection rate of 3.20%. Detection was 3.43% in boys and 2.93% in girls. Detection increased by age group, from 1.58% at 7 to 9 years to 3.70% at 10 to 12 years and 4.18% at 13 to 18 years. In the adjusted model, students aged 7 to 9 years had lower odds of scoliosis than those aged 10 to 12 years (OR 0.419, 95% CI 0.289–0.608), whereas the difference between 13 to 18 and 10 to 12 years was not statistically significant. Among recorded screening features, thoracic kyphosis showed the highest detection rate among feature-positive students, but feature-positive counts were small and should be interpreted descriptively. Conclusions Scoliosis detection in this urban school population was 3.20% and increased across age groups. The findings support continued school-community screening and careful data capture of screening-stage progression, while avoiding causal interpretation from the cross-sectional dataset.