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

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.