FACE-Q eye module for measuring patient-reported outcomes in blepharoplasty surgery: A validation study

Abstract

This study aimed to conduct a linguistic validation of all FACE-Q eye module scales in German, and to evaluate the reliability and validity of the scales in patients with blepharoplasty.

According to international recommendations, all FACE-Q scales and checklists were translated from English to German. Psychometric testing of blepharoplasty surgery-related scales of translated versions were administered to patients with blepharochalasis or dermatochalasis and a history of blepharoplasty surgery (n = 64; 11 scales) or no history of blepharoplasty surgery (n = 65; seven scales), and to a group of control subjects (n = 64; seven scales).

Most of the subscales showed acceptable internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alphas ranging from 0.75 to 0.97. Intraclass correlation coefficients were high (0.70–0.92), indicating good reliability, with total values of 0.63 (95% CI 0.46–0.76) and 0.68 (95% CI 0.53–0.80) for the upper eyelid and social function scores, respectively. There was good discriminability between pre- and post-blepharoplasty patients and normal subjects (p < 0.05).

The German-language version of the FACE-Q eye module is a successfully validated and helpful tool for assessing outcomes after blepharoplasty surgery, especially with respect to ‘satisfaction with overall facial appearance’, ‘psychological well-being, social function’, ‘decision satisfaction, outcome satisfaction’, and ‘early-life impact recovery’.