To test 4 previously published outcomes instruments (the Facelift Outcomes Evaluation, the Rhinoplasty Outcomes Evaluation, the Blepharoplasty Outcomes Evaluation, and the Skin Rejuvenation Outcomes Evaluation) in terms of their reliability and validity in assessing patient-related outcomes of surgical intervention.Design: A prospective pilot study of 78 patients in 3 similar private cosmetic surgery centers undergoing a total of 100 face-lift, rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty, and skin rejuvenation procedures. Patients were evaluated at 2 preoperative and 1 postoperative time points and the instruments were analyzed with regard to their test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and responsiveness to change.Results: All 4 outcomes instruments had excellent reliability, consistency, and validity scores. Test-retest re-liability was 0.74 to 0.83 (Pearson correlation coefficients), internal consistency scores were .83 to .88 (Cronbach ␣), and responsiveness to change was statistically significant for each instrument tested (PՅ.001). In addition, patients experienced significant quality of life improvement, with overall satisfaction increasing on average from 37% to more than 84% after these procedures.Conclusions: These 4 instruments are reliable and valid and can be used to accurately assess patient-related satisfaction in studies of face-lift, rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty, and skin resurfacing outcomes. These brief questionnaires provide the cosmetic surgeon with quantitative tools to evaluate otherwise subjective and purely qualitative outcomes and are recommended for use in future prospective studies.
Outcomes research is a fast-growing field of study that focuses on patient-related aspects of medical or surgical outcomes such as satisfaction and quality of life. In the realm of facial plastic surgery, many outcomes are subjective evaluations based on the patient and physician's judgment as to the surgical result, but little has been done to quantify these qualitative results in an objective manner. This paper discusses the basis for outcomes research and suggests its application to the field of facial plastic surgery. Four new facial plastic outcomes instruments have been developed and are provided for the potential use in measuring the quality of life results of rhytidectomy, rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty, and skin rejuvenation procedures.
The UW-QOL can be effectively and accurately used to compare treatment effects in the management of head and neck cancer. With this revised instrument, the 10 items appear to measure the domains of overall QOL in a highly consistent and reliable fashion over time.
Otitis Media Diary measures of parental time and medication use appear to provide a more accurate means of calculating the real social costs attributable to the AOM disease process in this cost-effectiveness analysis.
It is difficult to achieve "statistically significant" results in a single-institution setting. The "composite" QOL score may not be a sufficiently sensitive tool. Analysis of separate domains may be more effective.
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