The Eurocleft study: intercenter study of treatment outcome in patients with complete cleft lip and palate. Part 4: relationship among treatment outcome, patient/parent satisfaction, and the burden of care

Abstract

Objective: To assess patient/parent satisfaction with the treatment they had received from their respective teams, and to explore interrelationships between satisfaction, objectively rated outcome, and the burden of care.

Design: This study reports cross-sectional data as part of the overall longitudinal cohort study reported in the other four papers of this series.

Setting: Multidisciplinary cleft services in Northern Europe.

Subjects: 127 consecutively treated 17-year-olds with repaired complete unilateral cleft lip and palate and their parents.

Main outcome measure: Patient/parent satisfaction.

Results: Generally, there was a high level of patient/parent satisfaction. There were no relationships among satisfaction, objectively rated outcomes, and the amount of care.

Conclusions: This study highlights various challenges involved in questionnaire surveys into patient/parent satisfaction, and underlines the need for collective efforts to improve our understanding of this issue.