Quality of life & communication in jaw surgery: a pilot study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A pilot study investigating quality of life & communication in orthognathic (jaw) surgery
IRAS ID
132979
Contact name
Lindsay Winchester
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Research summary
This study investigating quality of life and communication in jaw surgery has background from reviewed literature and feedback from patients completing hospital audit and a research study locally.
There is impetus in the NHS to use Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) in the evaluation of treatment and care. Such measures include quality of life instruments and increasingly validated quality of life questionnaires are becoming available. Though predominantly they are used in clinical trials testing new therapies they could and should be equally useful for adding to the evaluation of outcomes in treatment and care delivered regularly in hospitals. As part of the current study we want to "road test" a validated quality of life questionnaire to see if it helps patients and clinicians at Queen Victoria Hospital to appraise the outcome of jaw surgery more fully. Comparison of the quality of life of two groups of patients, pre-treatment and 2yr post-treatment, will be undertaken.
Additionally, we will tie in looking at patients' quality of life with measuring the quality of communication they have experienced during their treatment. This is of interest because in other healthcare settings there is some evidence showing quality of communication can be an important predictor of overall quality of life and has influence on elements such as psychological wellbeing. This topic is particularly salient as literature review evidence (Ikeda 2011) shows patient comprehension and retention of information about jaw surgery is poor. Queen Victoria Hospital's previous audit data indicated communication & information provision needed improvement and a departmental research project comprehensively identified the areas where more information is required. By inviting a group of patients that have completed their treatment to fill-out a quality of communication questionnaire as well as a quality of life questionnaire will make possible exploration of associations between these two in the study too.
REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/1402
Date of REC Opinion
29 Jul 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion