Appearance-related psychosocial distress following facial skin cancer surgery using the FACE-Q Skin Cancer

The objective of this study is to assess patient-reported appearance-related psychosocial distress following facial skin cancer surgery, and to identify independent predictors of psychosocial impairment. This was a single-center, cross-sectional study at a tertiary care cancer center including patients who underwent dermatologic surgery on the face from March 1, 2016 to March 31, 2018. Patients completed the FACE-Q Skin Cancer Appearance-related Psychosocial Distress scale postoperatively between May 21, 2018 and October 1, 2018. Patient responses were rated on a 4-point Likert scale and converted on a scale from 0 to 100. In total, 359 patients completed the questionnaire (34.2% response rate). Overall, patients reported a low level of psychosocial distress. Patients most frequently reported items of self-consciousness, unhappiness, and insecurity  <  3 months following surgery. Though psychosocial distress significantly improved over time, self-consciousness continued to be reported in the long-term postoperative period. Linear regression analysis determined that younger age, history of anxiety and/or depression, surgery on the nose, and rep air by flap were independently predictive of psychosocial distress. Marginal predicted values for distress scores based on age demonstrated an indirect relationship. Patient-reported appearance-related psychosocial distress is low following facial skin cancer surgery, and report of distress decrease s over time. The identified p...
Source: Archives of Dermatological Research - Category: Dermatology Source Type: research