Background: The Quality of Life Adolescent Cleft Questionnaire is a measure of quality of life in cleft lip/palate (CL/P) and includes items on pre-treatment and post-treatment status. Items, however, were originally organized in a factor structure that prevents a formal pre-treatment to post-treatment comparison. Additionally, the questionnaire was tested in older patients.
Aim: We aimed to explore a factor structure that allows a comparison of pre- to post-treatment status in children and adolescents with CL/P.
Design: The sample comprised 60 children and adolescents with CL/P. The scale was divided into two groups of items (24 comparing pre-treatment and post-treatment status and 26 measuring current quality of life). Two different exploratory and confirmatory analyses were conducted (one for each group of items). Sources of criterion validity were investigated with measures of self-esteem and self-efficacy.
Results: The results supported a 6-factor structure for the pre-treatment and post-treatment items. In the second group of items, 9 items were removed due to inadequate functioning and a final 4-factor solution was obtained. The criterion validity of factors was good.
Conclusion: The proposed factor solution might be more useful to detect the perceived satisfaction in different areas and can be used in younger patients.
Keywords: cleft lip; cleft palate; factor analysis; quality of life; validation study.
© 2021 The Authors. International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry published by BSPD, IAPD and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.