Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for Quality of Life in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Validity, Reliability, and Clinical Utility—A Narrative Review

Background: Patient-reported outcome measures are important for capturing health-related quality of life and treatment-specific concerns in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Objective: This narrative review aimed to summarize the validity, reliability, responsiveness, minimal clinically important difference, floor and ceiling effects, cross-cultural adaptation, and clinical utility of commonly used quality of life and treatment-specific patient-reported outcome measures in AIS. Methods: A narrative literature review was conducted focusing on frequently used AIS-related instruments, including the SRS-22/SRS-22r, SRS-7, QLPSD, ISYQOL, SJ-27, BSSQ-Brace/BSSQ-Deformity and BrQ. Evidence regarding psychometric properties and clinical applicability was synthesized narratively. Results: Most instruments demonstrated acceptable to high internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Reported Cronbach’s alpha values generally ranged from 0.71 to 0.96 for SRS-22/SRS-22r, 0.87 to 0.94 for QLPSD, 0.75 to 0.88 for ISYQOL, 0.898 to 0.991 for SJ-27, 0.80 to 0.87 for BSSQ-Brace/BSSQ-Deformity, and 0.82 to 0.96 for BrQ. Treatment-specific tools such as BSSQ and BrQ provide additional information on brace-related quality of life, stress, and coping. However, evidence on responsiveness, minimal clinically important difference, and conservative treatment-specific interpretability remains limited for most instruments. Conclusions: No single instrument appears sufficient to capture the multidimensional impact of AIS. General quality of life measures should be selected according to the clinical or research question, and treatment-specific tools should be added when brace-related burden or stress is relevant. Future studies should further define responsiveness, minimal clinically important change, and longitudinal utility in conservative AIS management.