Abstract
ObjectivesTo preliminarily analyze factors that affected the prevalence of anxiety in Chinese patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P).MethodsThe Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) was used to screen anxiety in Chinese CL/P patients. Non-CL/P individuals were also included as the control group. Sociodemographic and clinical data consisting of diagnosis, gender, only child or not, monthly household income, and current family location were collected to analyze possible factors that could affect the anxiety of this patient population.ResultsOne hundred forty-two and 78 valid questionnaires were collected from the study and control groups, respectively. The mean GAD-7 score of the study group (3.092 ± 3.381) was significantly lower than the control (3.987 ± 2.505). Moreover, the proportion of patients presenting with moderate-severe anxiety was larger in the study group than in the control group (6.6 vs. 0.0%). Statistically significant differences in GAD-7 scores were observed between the study and control groups when the patient was the only child, living in an urban area, or the monthly household income was between 1,000 and 5,000 yuan.ConclusionAlthough the severity of anxiety in Chinese CL/P patients was not severer than those without CL/P, there was a relatively high incidence of moderate-severe anxiety in CL/P patients, while the only child, current family location and the monthly household income played significant roles in affecting anxiety psychology.
Highlights
Cleft lip and palate (CL/P) is one of the most common congenital craniofacial abnormalities, characterized by failure of normal fusion of the palate and lip at the midline during embryonic development, resulting in a clinically obvious deformity of the newborn [1], bringing unignorable appearance malformations and increasing risk for various psychological diseases like loneliness, low self-esteem, social disorders, and mood disorders to patients [2]
A total of 145 Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale (GAD-7) (142 valid and 3 invalid) questionnaires were collected from the study group (Mean age: 17.2 ± 5.8 years), while a total of 78 questionnaires were collected from the control group (Mean age: 18.5 ± 5.2 years)
What’s more, as the severity of anxiety could be divided into normal, mild anxiety, moderate anxiety and severe anxiety on the basis of GAD-7 score, we found that the proportion of moderate-severe anxiety in the study group was larger than that in the control group, indicating that cleft lip (CL)/P disease might pose a severer negative effect on patient’s anxiety
Summary
Cleft lip and palate (CL/P) is one of the most common congenital craniofacial abnormalities, characterized by failure of normal fusion of the palate and lip at the midline during embryonic development, resulting in a clinically obvious deformity of the newborn [1], bringing unignorable appearance malformations and increasing risk for various psychological diseases like loneliness, low self-esteem, social disorders, and mood disorders to patients [2]. There lies a strong association between psychological wellbeing and appearance, and between psychological wellbeing and social adjustment [3], some other studies demonstrated few differences in psychological status between CL/P patients and those who without appearance malformations [4]. It reminds us of the need for further studies. In this study, we sought to preliminarily investigate the characteristics of anxiety in Chinese CL/P patients by applying the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) to analyze the effect of CL/P on anxiety and the possible related influencing factors
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