Does an ear deformity bring an adverse impact on quality of life of treacher collins syndrome individuals?

Abstract

Treacher Collins syndrome (TCS) is an autosomal dominant disorder with variable expression in which the ear may or may not be absent or with a malformation. Individuals with TCS suffer social stigma that may affect interaction with their peers. Quality of life instruments obtained through self-perception questionnaires are stigma identification tools and can enable social adjustment of these individuals. This study aims to assess the quality of life of individuals with TCS and to gauge the impacts of ear deformity on the quality of life. Twelve volunteers with a clinical and genetic diagnosis of TCS answered the WHO quality of life questionnaire and were divided into groups with normal ears (n = 6) versus affected ears (n = 6), and their results were compared. Siviero’s scale was used to stratify the quality of life scores as satisfactory, intermediate and unsatisfactory. The overall score of the normal ears group was 73.13 and 71.81 for the affected ears group, and both were classified as an intermediate quality of life, with no statistically significant differences between them. Ear deformity is not a burden to the quality of life of these individuals, who already show other deformities and overall intermediate quality of life scores.