[Research for the prevalence of scoliosis]

The number of scoliotic patients under treatment have recently showed a marked increase in Japan. In this situation, the author has raised two important questions. Firstly, has the incidence of scoliosis increased in Japan? Secondly, what happened to scoliotic patients who had been left untreated before the establishment of the current therapy. To seek answers for these questions, prevalence studies for all generations were carried out. As to the first question, the prevalence rate of scoliosis in adult from the twenties to forties was lower than in junior high and high school students. From this incidence and other several factors, the author concluded that the incidence of scoliosis in Japan increased recently. As to the second question, questionnaires were sent to each patients subjected to the secondary examination. Since the difference between scoliotic group and control group on the back symptoms did not appear significant, scoliosis and subjective symptoms apparently failed to show a correlation.