Oral health-related quality of life in Dutch children with cleft lip and/or palate

Objective: To investigate the oral health-related quality of life (OH-RQoL) of Dutch cleft lip and
palate patients. It was hypothesized that (1) there is no difference between cleft patients’ and their
parents’ reports of patients’ OH-RQoL; (2) there are no gender differences; (3) there are no
differences in OH-RQoL between cleft patients with regard to their symptoms; and (4) there is no
difference between patients above and below 12 years of age.
Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 122 patients with clefts (age range, 8-15 years)
and their parents. Respondents were recruited from the cleft palate team of Amsterdam. They
completed the Child Oral Health-Related Quality of Life questionnaire (COHIP). Items were
divided into five different subscales, and scores on all subscales were compared between and
within groups.
Results: Patients’ and parents’ perceptions differed significantly on three of the five subscales.
Girls and boys did not differ significantly with regard to their perception of reported OH-RQoL. The
cleft lip and cleft lip and alveolus [CL(A)] subgroup scored significantly higher on the functional wellbeing
subscale. The cleft patients aged 12 years and older scored significantly lower on the
emotional well-being and oral symptoms subscales when compared with their younger peers.
Conclusions: Only the second hypothesis was not rejected in this study. This means that parents
are not interchangeable with regard to reporting on their children’s perceptions related to OHRQoL,
that OH-RQoL changes with age, and that it is important that subgroups are respected
when investigating OH-RQoL in cleft patients.