Social Appearance Anxiety Among a Sample of Turkish Adolescents and Young Adults With Cleft Palate With or Without Cleft Lip: A Cross-Sectional Controlled Study
Mevlüde Yüce Polat, Sultan Bozdoğan Aydın, Esra Apuhan, Elif Beril ÖzdemirObjective
To compare social appearance anxiety between Turkish adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cleft palate with or without cleft lip (CP ± L) and a comparison group without CP ± L.
Design
Cross-sectional study.
Setting
Orthodontic clinic in a university dental hospital.
Participants
AYAs 10 to 29 years old (N = 151; 70 with CP ± L and 81 without CP ± L; mean age 16.62 ± 6.66 years; 50.3% female and 49.7% male).
Main Outcome Measure
The validated Turkish Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS) was completed, with group comparisons using Welch's t-test and multiple linear regression including cleft status, age, sex, and family history of cleft.
Results
AYAs with CP ± L had a significantly higher mean SAAS score of 51.43 ± 14.18, compared with 35.58 ± 12.35 in AYAs without CP ± L (95% CI, 11.54–20.16;
Conclusion
Turkish AYAs with CP ± L reported substantially higher social appearance anxiety than those without CP ± L. CP ± L status remained independently associated with higher SAAS scores after adjustment for age, sex, and family history. The results suggest that appearance-related social concerns deserve attention as part of the broader psychosocial care of AYAs with CP ± L.