Validation of the facial dysfunction domain of the Penn Acoustic Neuroma Quality-of-Life (PANQOL) Scale

• Published in: European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology Vol. 274; no. 6; pp. 2437 - 2442
• Main Authors: Lodder, Wouter L., Adan, Guleed H., Chean, Chung S., Lesser, Tristram H., Leong, Samuel C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.06.2017
• Subjects: Adult; Facial Paralysis - diagnosis; Facial Paralysis - etiology; Facial Paralysis - psychology; Female; Head and Neck Surgery; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Neuroma, Acoustic - complications; Neurosurgery; Otology; Otorhinolaryngology; Quality of Life; Reproducibility of Results; Surveys and Questionnaires; United Kingdom; Weights and Measures; United Kingdom; Facial palsy; Acoustic Neuroma; Quality of life; Vestibular schwannoma
• ISSN: 0937-4477; 1434-4726
• DOI: 10.1007/s00405-017-4561-4

The objective of this study is to evaluate the strength of content validity within the facial dysfunction domain of the Penn Acoustic Neuroma Quality-of-Life (PANQOL) Scale and to compare how it correlates with a facial dysfunction-specific QOL instrument (Facial Clinimetric Evaluation, FaCE). The study design is online questionnaire survey. Members of the British Acoustic Neuroma Association received both PANQOL questionnaires and the FaCE scale. 158 respondents with self-identified facial paralysis or dysfunction had completed PANQOL and FaCE data sets for analysis. The mean composite PANQOL score was 53.5 (range 19.2–93.5), whilst the mean total FaCE score was 50.9 (range 10–95). The total scores of the PANQOL and FaCE correlated moderate ( r  = 0.48). Strong correlation ( r  = 0.63) was observed between the PANQOL’s facial dysfunction domain and the FaCE total score. Of all the FaCE domains, social function was strongly correlated with the PANQOL facial dysfunction domain ( r  = 0.66), whilst there was very weak-to-moderate correlation (range 0.01–0.43) to the other FaCE domains. The current study has demonstrated a strong correlation between the facial dysfunction domains of PANQOL with a facial paralysis-specific QOL instrument.