Psychological outcomes amongst cleft patients and their families

Development of a Valid and Reliable Instrument for the Assessment of Quality of Life in Adolescents With Clefts - Detection of Potential Mental Health Issues

“…They feel sad and less socially acceptable than their peers. This is in consistence with the findings of Turner et al (1997) that the physical appearance seems to be a big problem, and that children with clefts have a problem with relating to peers.…”

Scandcleft randomised trials of primary surgery for unilateral cleft lip and palate: 10. Parental perceptions of appearance and treatment outcomes in their 5-year-old child

“…There were 33.3% girls (n = 119) and 67% boys (n = 237). [6]. The 8 item scale was used to assess parents' perceived satisfaction with features associated with cleft and its treatment, namely speech, hearing, lip, nose, teeth, bite, breathing, and profile.…”

“…A total mean score of parent satisfaction was computed (mean score for each item divided by the number of items). Scores below 4 on individual items have previously been labelled as satisfactory [6]. Noor and Musa [8] suggested a cut-off score of 32 on the total score (summing up the score for each item) as a measure of satisfaction with treatment.…”

“…A range of studies have explored this issue as assessed by professionals, lay-persons, patients and parents [5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Studies comparing parent, patients, and professionals' satisfaction with cleft-related features report contradictory findings (for a review, see [10,12]), which may partly be explained by different methodological approaches, in addition to a significant diversity in the choice of concepts and outcome measures [13].…”

Facial Disfigurement and Identity: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Facial Transplantation

“…Social anxiety, fear of negative social evaluation, and social avoidance are common in those with facial disfigurement [40]. Cleft lip studies have shown that affected children are at greater risk for anxiety, general unhappiness, and self-doubt in interpersonal relationships [41] and that many affected adolescents believe their self-confidence remains affected by their disfigurement [42]. Perhaps most alarmingly, one study showed that the suicide rate among Danish adults with clefts was double that of the unaffected population [43].…”