First few Article Sentences
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a dramatic reduction in routine preventive health care. With fewer doctor visits, more conditions are going undiagnosed and untreated.
According to a recent American Academy of Pediatrics survey, the pandemic has caused a dramatic reduction in pediatrician visits. Two-thirds of primary care pediatricians have reported practice visits are down.1
As a physician, I am concerned about how the reduction in preventative care today will affect the state of our public’s health tomorrow. As an orthopedic spine specialist, I am especially concerned about how the current pandemic will affect preteens who are in the early stages of developing juvenile and adolescent scoliosis.
Scoliosis is a sideways curvature of the spine, and affects 2-3% of the population – an estimated six to nine million people in the United States.2 The most common type is adolescent idiopathic scoliosis and usually appears first in children between 10 and 12 years old, during the growth spurt just before puberty.