A team of researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, designed a study to identify independent demographic predictors of differences in satisfaction with appearance and quality of life following rhinoplasty, utilizing the FACE-Q patient-reported outcome tool.
The authors had 59 rhinoplasty patients complete the following FACE-Q scales: Satisfaction with Facial Appearance, Satisfaction with Nose, Social Function, and Psychological Well-being. Higher FACE-Q scores indicate greater satisfaction with appearance or superior quality of life. Pre- and post-treatment scores were compared in the context of patient demographics.
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This is what they found:
- Women demonstrated statistically significant improvements in Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life.
- Men experienced significant improvement only in Satisfaction with Facial appearance.
- Caucasians demonstrated statistically significant improvement in Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life… Non-Caucasians did not.
- Patients 35 and younger were more likely to experience enhanced Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life, compared with patients older than 35.
- Patients with an income greater than $100,000 were more likely to experience significant increases in Satisfaction with Facial Appearance and quality of life than patients with an income less than $100,000.
“In an objective study using a validated patient-reported outcome instrument, [we] were able to quantify differences in the clinically meaningful change in perception of appearance and quality of life that rhinoplasty patients gain based on demographic variables,” the authors write. “[We] also demonstrated that these variables are potential predictors of differences in satisfaction.”
The study was published in Aesthetic Surgery Journal.
