Health-Related Quality of Life Among Preadolescent Children With Oral Clefts: The Mother's Perspective

Abstract

Speech and aesthetic concerns seem to have been important factors affecting the health-related quality of life for children with oral clefts. These factors seem to be more important as children get closer to adolescence (ages 8-12 years) when acceptance by peers becomes more critical.

Impact of Cleft Lip and Palate on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQOL) in Brazilian Patients

“…Patients with CLP who are dissatisfied with their facial appearance may be at increased risk of developing social problems and withdrawal [12,13]. It is well known that the quality of the reconstructive and supportive procedures that an individual with a chronic health condition receives can have an impact on their health-related quality of life [14]. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis on overall and oral health-related quality of life in individuals with CLP showed the impact of these conditions on quality of life, especially in the psychosocial domain [15].…”

Economic evaluation of anti-epileptic drug therapies with specific focus on teratogenic outcomes

“…For all associated malformation sub-groups we estimated the quality-of-life and the life expectancy of the offspring based on the published literature (Table 1) [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] . For our 'rest group' of NOS malformations it was not possible to find any reference.…”

Children with orofacial clefts : dental caries and health-related quality of life

“…This can be interpreted as children with a CL/P feel less acceptance and support by peers, have less ability to form and maintain relationships, are less respected by peers and friends, have less experiences of positive group feeling, and feel less a part of a group than non-cleft controls (Ravens-Sieberer, Gosch et al 2006). Facial appearance, acceptance by peers, and the desire to be like everyone else are important to preadolescents (Damiano, Tyler et al 2007, Chetpakdeechit, Hallberg et al 2009, Havstam, Laakso et al 2011). Questions and negative comments from other children may have the result in that children with CL/P are feeling different (Havstam, Laakso et al 2011).…”

“…This is in agreement with an earlier study by Feragen et al (2015) showing that CL±P is not a risk factor for psychological problems but a risk factor for dissatisfaction with appearance. Marcusson et al (2002) and Damiano et al (2007) show that aesthetic concerns seems to be an important factor affecting HRQoL in adults and older children. The result of this study was not expected since it could be assumed that aesthetic physical appearance is more important in the society nowadays were social media, such as social networking sites and blogs, focusing on such things and are important parts in youngster's social daily life.…”

“…Children with CP often have speech impairment (Nyberg, Peterson et al 2014) and hearing impairment (Skuladottir, Sivertsen et al 2015) that can affect their social competence due to their difficulties in communication with others. As well as with aesthetic concerns, also speech worries seem to influence HRQoL in children with CL/P (Damiano, Tyler et al 2007). Since different difficulties occur in children with visible as well as non-visible clefts, no difference was detected between the two groups regarding HRQoL.…”