Objective

The FACE-Q Craniofacial Module for children and young adults is a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) designed to measure outcomes for patients aged 8 to 29 years with facial conditions. The aim of this study was to establish content validity of a relevant subset of the module for its use in orthodontic patients with malocclusion.

Setting and Sample Population

Experts in orthodontics were emailed and invited to provide feedback through a Research Electronic Data Capture survey. Patient feedback was obtained through cognitive interviews with patients aged 8 to 29 years recruited from a university-based orthodontic clinic in Canada.

Materials and Methods

Expert opinion and patient interviews were used to obtain feedback on the content of 4 appearance (face, smile, teeth and jaws) and 1 function (eating and drinking) scales hypothesized to be relevant to orthodontic malocclusions, and to elicit new concepts. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded using a line-by-line approach.

Results

Twenty-one experts and 15 patients participated. Expert feedback led us to drop 9, retain 40, revise 4 and add 16 new items. At the conclusion of cognitive interviews no items were dropped, 55 were retained, 5 were revised and 8 new items were added. The final set of 68 items demonstrated content validity for orthodontic patients.

Conclusion

Expert feedback and cognitive interviews enabled us to revise and refine 5 scales as part of the FACE-Q Craniofacial Module for use in orthodontic patients. These scales were included in the internationalfield-test of the FACE-Q Craniofacial Module.