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: Multidiscipllnary 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.