Personality Traits and Perception of Disability after Facial Palsy

Abstract

disability and they hypothesized that personality traits could modulate this relation, but no study up has investigated this issue. The aim of this study was to determine and quantify how personality traits modulate the well-known relation between neuromuscular impairment and perception of physical and social disability in patients with facial palsy. Methods Subjects We included in the study patients with peripheral facial paralysis of different etiologies evaluated between January 2010 and March 2013 in our outpatient clinic of the Rehabilitation Unit, IRCCS Policlinico S. Matteo Foundation, Pavia, Italy. Patients unable to answer the questions for linguistic problems or cognitive impairment were excluded. Sixty-one patients agreed to take part to the study and gave their written informed consent. The study protocol was approved by Ethics Committee of our Institution. Patients had a mean age of 49.7 years, SD 13.92, 41 (67,2%) were females, 34 (55.7%) had right side affected.