FAQ

The app measures the Angle of Trunk Rotation, or ATR, using your phone’s motion sensors. You lay the phone across the back during the forward bend test and it reads the difference in height between one side of the trunk and the other, in degrees.

That difference comes from rotation of the vertebrae, which pushes the ribs and muscles on one side further back. It is a screening measurement, not a diagnosis, and it is not the curve measured on an X-ray.

Not as a routine programme. Provincial school screening was discontinued, and detection now depends on a parent or a clinician noticing something.

Arrangements are set provincially and can change, so confirm the current position with your provincial health authority or your child’s school board.

The case against routine screening is that most children who screen positive turn out not to need treatment, which means a large number of healthy children are sent for assessment for every curve that benefits.

The case for it is that curves found late are harder to treat, and that without screening the burden of detection falls on parents who have not been shown what to look for. The Canadian Scoliosis Screening Coalition has campaigned for reinstatement and the argument has had national media attention. Reasonable people disagree, and we do not take a side here.

It means the check happens at home or it does not happen. That is the practical consequence, whatever your view of the policy.

The forward bend test takes a minute, and with the app it produces a number and a date rather than an impression you will struggle to compare against next time.

Something a doctor can act on. Telling a family doctor that a reading moved from 4° in February to 8° in August is a different conversation from saying your child’s back looks worse than it did.

Without a screening programme, your record may be the only longitudinal information anyone has about that child’s spine.

No. The Cobb angle is measured on a radiograph and can only come from an X-ray. The app measures rotation at the surface of the back.

The two are related but not interchangeable, and an ATR reading cannot be converted into a Cobb angle. See ATR vs Cobb angle explained.

No. A raised reading tells you there is trunk asymmetry worth having examined. Confirming or ruling out scoliosis needs a clinical examination and, where indicated, imaging.

Use the reading to decide whether to book an appointment, not to decide what the diagnosis is.

Have your child stand with feet together and knees straight, then bend forward from the waist with arms hanging and palms together until the upper back is roughly level with the floor.

Look along the back from behind, lay the phone flat across the back at right angles to the spine, and work down from the top. Record the highest reading. Full instructions are in our forward bend test guide.

Flat across the back, centred on the spine and perpendicular to it. Take a reading over the upper back, then have your child bend a little further and take another over the lower back.

Record the largest number. Readings taken at a different level each time are not comparable, and that is the most common reason a series looks alarming when nothing has changed.

Small readings are common and a perfectly symmetrical back is unusual. Under 5° is generally treated as within normal variation.

Stability over time matters as much as any single figure. Our guide to the normal scoliometer range goes into this in more detail.

Screening research reports that an ATR near 5° corresponds on average to a Cobb angle near 11°, and an ATR near 7° to a Cobb angle near 20°. These are group averages and an individual can sit well above or below them.

A reading cannot be converted into a Cobb angle. ATR readings at 5, 7 and 10 degrees covers the thresholds.

Book if the reading is 5° or more, if it has risen by around 5° over a few months, if one shoulder blade or hip sits visibly higher, or if there is back pain, numbness or a change in how your child walks.

In Canada the family doctor is usually the entry point, and a referral to a pediatric orthopaedic or spine service comes from there. If you do not have a family doctor, a walk-in clinic can start the same process. More in when to seek an assessment.

Your dated readings — date, which part of the back, the number, and who took the measurement.

A doctor seeing your child once has no way of knowing whether a curve is changing. A record covering several months answers a question the appointment on its own cannot, and it matters more here because no screening programme is generating that history for you.

Ask what would change the plan: what reading, or what rate of change, would prompt imaging or a referral. A specific number gives you both something to review against.

Keep measuring in the meantime. A documented change is the most useful thing you can bring back, and waiting and watching works far better when someone is actually watching with a ruler.

Every three months through the growth spurt is a reasonable rhythm for a child with no known curve. If a curve is already being monitored, follow the interval the specialist has set.

Measuring weekly does not find change any earlier. It mostly records variation in your own technique.

Where possible, yes. Most of the difference between readings comes from how the phone is held and where it is placed, not from the app.

One person, the same room, the same time of day and the same phone gives you a series you can genuinely compare.

The measurement uses the phone’s motion sensors, so anything that tilts the device changes the number. A thick or uneven case is the usual cause and adds the same offset to every reading.

Measure with the phone flat against the back and, where possible, without a case. Pressing the phone in compresses soft tissue and tends to read low. Keep the setup identical between sessions.

A rising trend matters as much as any single reading. An increase of around 5° between measurements warrants professional review even if the absolute figure still looks modest.

First confirm the technique was identical, since method changes alone can move a reading by several degrees. If the increase holds on a careful repeat, arrange an assessment. Mild curves can progress without pain and without being obvious.

Curves progress fastest during the adolescent growth spurt, most often in girls, and a family history raises the likelihood.

Boys develop scoliosis as well. With no screening programme running, a boy with a visible rib hump is as worth measuring as a girl the same age.

Yes. Adults use it to follow a curve they already know about, or to check trunk asymmetry alongside back pain.

Adult curves change more slowly than adolescent ones, so measure less often and expect smaller movements. A new or quickly changing asymmetry in an adult should be assessed by a doctor rather than tracked at home.

According to the app’s Data safety information on Google Play, the Scoliometer App collects no user data and shares none with third parties. Readings stay on your own device.

Because they are held on the device rather than on our servers, we cannot retrieve them for you. Keep your own dated record and bring it to appointments.

Subscriptions bought inside the app are billed by Apple or Google, and only they can refund them. We are not able to process a refund for a store purchase.

Contact Apple or Google support directly through the account you bought it with.

Yes. Download it again using the same Apple ID or Google account you bought it with and your purchase is restored at no extra cost.