Introduction:

The early identification of disorders of the musculoskeletal system in paediatrics should be of use in their approach and treatment. pGALS (paediatric Gait, Arms, Legs and Spine) is a tool used for evaluation of children with previous musculoskeletal disease. No studies were found in the literature reviewed that used pGALS as a screening test in pGALS Colombia.

Objective:

To identify the usefulness of pGALS as a screening test in children and adolescents in Colombia.

Materials and methods:

Descriptive, cross-sectional study, which included children and adolescents, aged 6 to 16 years without a previous diagnosis of inflammatory or autoimmune skeletomuscular disease, who were evaluated with pGALS in their homes and in their schools during September and October 2018.

Results:

The study included 169 patients, with a mean age of 9.43years. Changes in pGALS were observed in 66.85% of the participants. The positive response to the first question in the examination had a sensitivity of 91.3%, a specificity of 53%, a positive likelihood ratio of 1.9, and negative likelihood ratio of 0.16 to identify changes in the musculoskeletal system. The positive response to any of the three questions had a statistically significant association to find altered pGALS (P = .001), sensitivity 58%, specificity 94%, positive likelihood ratio of 9.3, and negative likelihood ratio of 0.44. The acceptance by pGALS patients was 95.3%. The mean time to perform the test was 2:27 minutes.

Conclusions:

PGALS is a quick and easy tool that is well tolerated by patients, and helps in the identification of musculoskeletal system disorders in the paediatric population.

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