Quality of life of children treated for cleft lip and/or palate in a selected South African population.

Abstract

Background Cleft lip or palate are regarded as the most prevalent congenital anomalies of the head and neck, occurring on the lips and both the hard and soft palates. These clefts are associated with complications that affect patients’ quality of life (QoL) by impairing their eating, communication, hearing, and physical appearance in both adolescence and adulthood. Maxillofacial surgeons commonly perform surgical repairs for clefts, yet some challenges may persist even after treatment. These ongoing issues might go unnoticed without a QoL assessment. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate how surgical correction of cleft lip or palate impacts the QoL of patients with orofacial clefts. Methods Fifty patients who came for cleft lip or palate repair surgery at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital’s Craniofacial Clinic were included in this study. A questionnaire was employed as the data collection instrument to evaluate the QoL of these patients. Results Participants with a cleft lip only exhibited low QoL scores specifically in the social health domain, at 63.5%. Those with unilateral cleft lip and palate had decreased scores in the psychological health domain, while patients with bilateral cleft lip and palate scored lower in the physical health domain, with percentages of 57.1% and 71.1%, respectively. In contrast, children with cleft palate only displayed higher QoL scores across all health domains. Female participants showed elevated scores in both the psychological domain (61.5%) and the physical domain (85%). Importantly, children aged 10 to 13 years recorded the lowest scores across all health domains. Conclusion QoL was higher in patients with cleft palates than in those with other cleft subtypes. Those within the 1-3 age group had much higher QoL scores than older age groups, and females had a higher QoL than males.