BACKGROUND: Scoliosis is an abnormal side-to-side spinal curve of greater than or equal to 10⁰ Cobb angle. It is the most common spinal deformity in children and adolescents. Epidemiological evidence about scoliosis is scarce in Africa, including Ethiopia. This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of scoliosis among adolescents and analysing its association with age and sex using plain chest radiographs obtained for non-spinal reasons in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital.

METHOD: All non-tilted, non-rotated, and non-poorly penetrated digital plain chest radiographs of adolescents aged 10 to 19 years obtained at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital between January 1 and December 31, 2019, were measured for the coronal Cobb angle. The data were cleaned, coded, and entered into SPSS version 26 for analysis. Chi-square, and linear regression, and logistic regression analyses were also carried out to evaluate the effect of sex and age on scoliosis.

RESULTS: The Cobb angles of 1,369 posteroanterior chest radiographs of adolescents were measured. Thirty (2.2%, 95% CI: 1.4%, 3.0%) of these were found to have scoliosis. The mean coronal Cobb angle was 2.27⁰±6.32⁰. There was no statistically significant difference between the prevalence of scoliosis in boys (2.21%) and girls (2.17%) (X²=0.003, P=0.954). Likewise, age did not show any statistically significant difference in the prevalence of scoliosis (X²=2.655, P=0.265).

CONCLUSION: This study revealed that incidental finding of adolescent scoliosis in plain chest radiographs is common. Further study using whole spine radiography should be carried out to determine the true general population prevalence of scoliosis in Ethiopia.

KEYWORDS: adolescent scoliosis; spinal deformity; Ethiopia; Cobb angle; chest radiographs