Capacitação de professores da rede pública de ensino e de profissionais de saúde da atenção básica sobre escoliose idiopática do adolescente

Abstract

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a disease that causes three-dimensional deformity in the spine, whose diagnosis is made when the Cobb angle is greater than 10°. It can be secondary or idiopathic, the latter being responsible for about 80% of cases. It has a prevalence of 0.5% to 5.2% in the population, is more common in females and has the following risk factors: history of prematurity, prepubertal onset, skeletal immaturity, presence of double curve in the spine and angle Cobb's (at the time of diagnosis) greater than or equal to 20°. If not treated properly, it can lead to lung restriction, muscle weakness, limitations to physical exercise, pain in the lumbar spine, serious repercussions on body self-image and psychological and social damage. On the other hand, early screening of the pathology is essential to reduce functional sequelae, prevent disease progression and reduce the need for surgery. It is in this context that public school teachers and primary care health professionals become important actors, as they deal daily with children and adolescents who need early screening. The implementation of screening programs initially depends on assessing the professionals' knowledge of EIA and, subsequently, on qualified training. For these reasons, this work translated and validated the questionnaire “Current Knowledge of Scoliosis in Physiotherapy Students Trained in the UK”, from English to Portuguese, which is used to assess knowledge on the subject of EIA. Translations and back-translations were carried out according to the methodological design; the subsequent synthesis of the versions, conducted by a panel of specialists; and the performance of a pre-test with 37 undergraduate students in physiotherapy, to validate the instrument. The results showed a content validity index (CVI) of 0.86 and a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.85 for the item clarity and 0.84 for understanding, showing adequate and efficient internal consistency of the translation and validation of the instrument. In a second stage, based on Miller's pyramid, primary care health professionals and public school teachers were trained, to whom the instrument validated in the previous stage of the study was applied. This training was preceded by a pre-test and followed by a post-test. The sample for this second stage had 72 participants, and the results showed, by the paired t-Student test, a significant gain in knowledge in the post-test in relation to the pre-test. In addition, the theoretical model of Miller's triangle proved to be suitable for application in health training, as it encompasses the different skills to be explored, from theoretical to practical knowledge. The study has an important social impact, as it was possible to establish a validated tool for assessing EIA in Portuguese, as well as observe its use in practice, through real training of the target audience, building a knowledge base to deepen the debate on issues of early EIA screening and health training.