Anxiety, Depression, and Quality of Life in Mothers of Children with Cleft Lip/Palate

Abstract

Multidisciplinary care for patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP) includes the surgical correction of the facial disfigurement and the rehabilitation of functional deficits to optimize the communicational competence of the affected patient. Although the well-being of the mother of a CLP child is an important protective factor for the child, up to now literature has paid only little attention to this topic. In this study, 50 mothers of CLP children aged 1–10 years were examined using the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to screen for quality of life, anxiety and depression. Surprisingly, the data obtained indicate no group-specific alterations of these items when compared with normal controls. In cases with a deteriorated quality of life, the results of the HADS were pathologic as well. In general, mothers of CLP children aged more than 12 months do not require psychological screening. In individual cases, screening for relevant emotional aspects may be restricted to using the HADS.

Quality of Life in School-Age Children With Orofacial Clefts and Their Families

“…Taken together, most of the QoL limitations in boys with OFC represented difficulties in social interactions to peers or caregivers and problems in personality formation. These observations are consistent to already-known problems of the OFC population including reduced peer acceptance, 29 reduced social skill development, 30,31 and reduced intellectual functioning. 32 These problems may affect children at school ages in particular because school adjustment is related to academic achievement, peer acceptance, and prosocial conduct.…”

An analysis of quality of life in 130 families having small children with cleft lip/palate using the impact on family scale

“…Many previous studies have addressed the QoL of patients with OFC at different ages, describing limitations at various degrees of psycho-social and intellectual development 6,9,10,[15][16][17]22 . It seems very likely that an intact family is a most important factor in protecting a child with OFC from impacts that reduce QoL; therefore, concepts of interdisciplinary care in modern cleft centres should address both the child and the family 26 . Detailed knowledge of impacts affecting the QoL in families having children with OFC might support affected families specifically in coping with the particular situation and in providing adequate care for the patient.…”

“…Although interdisciplinary treatment of OFC starts immediately after birth and usually has encouraging functional and aesthetic results, most families are psychologically traumatized when a baby with an OFC is born 7,13 . Psychological aspects may include anxiety and depression 26 , and problems in coping with the diagnosis of the malformation and provision of the special needs of the infant 13 . Before primary treatment is completed, affected families may also have to compensate for increased financial, personal and social impacts related to nutritional and medical management of the cleft patient 1 , probably reducing the quality of life (QoL).…”

An Evaluation of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in a Group of 4–7 Year-old Children with Cleft Lip and Palate

“…Nur in wenigen Studien wurde versucht, die HRQoL von Vorschulkindern oder deren Familien zu untersuchen [18,44]. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass Jugendliche mit fazialen Abweichungen niedrigere Lebensqualitätswerte haben als Jugendliche, die davon nicht betroffen sind, und ähnliche Werte aufzeigen wie Jugendliche mit chronischen Erkrankungen [39].…”

“…However, few have attempted to assess the HRQoL in preschool children or their families [18,44]. Adolescents with facial anomalies have been shown to have lower quality of life scores than those not thus affected, in fact, their scores resemble those of patients with other chronic conditions [39].…”