Fear of disease progression and associated factors of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: a latent profile analysis.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the current status and potential profile categories of the fear of disease progression (FoP) in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients, and to explore the associating factors of different profiles.

METHODS

Convenience sampling was used to select AIS patients of a tertiary hospital in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province as the survey patients for the period from August 2024 to March 2025. The survey was conducted using the General Information Questionnaire, the Fear of Progression Questionnaire-Short Form (FoP-Q-SF), the Family APGAR Index (APGAR), and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ). The potential profile analysis of the FoP among AIS patients was carried out, and the associating factors were explored by univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

In this study, a total of 307 patients with AIS were investigated, of whom 48.2% had FoP that was heterogeneous and categorized into three subgroups: the low FoP- stable psychological group, moderate FoP-disease distress group, and high FoP-dysfunctional group, accounting for 30.6%, 45.9%, and 23.5%, respectively. Logistic regression results showed that FoP in patients with AIS was associated with gender, pain level, cobb angle, BMI, disease perception, brace treatment status, and family function. (all P < 0.05). Furthermore, female, wearing braces, larger Cobb angle, lower BMI, higher pain levels, and high BIPQ scores were more likely to be associated with the medium fear Fop distress group or the high Fop-dysfunctional group. Patients with high APGAR scores were significantly associated with the low FoP-stable psychological group.

CONCLUSIONS

The level of FoP in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients is high and heterogeneous. Healthcare professionals should focus on patients in the high FoP-dysfunctional group and carry out targeted interventions based on the psychological characteristics of FoP in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients as early as possible in accordance with the characteristics of the different categories of patients and their associating factors.