Facial Palsy‐Specific Quality of Life in 920 Patients: Correlation With Clinician‐Graded Severity and Predicting Factors

Objectives To investigate the correlation between facial palsy severity and quality of life in a broad cohort of facial palsy patients and to elucidate factors that influence this relationship. Study Design Retrospective study. Methods Records of patients presenting with a clinician‐graded facial function (eFACE) and facial palsy‐specific quality‐of‐life patient‐reported outcome measure (FaCE) scale from the same moment were reviewed. Multiple linear regression was performed to study the effect of various variables on FaCE total score. Results A total of 920 of 1,304 patients were included, 59.9% female with a mean (standard deviation) age of 48.6 (16.7) years and a median (interquartile range palsy duration of 9.6 [2.2; 42.2] months. A multiple linear regression model predicting FaCE total score was established, finding 10 significant variables: eFACE; viral, malignant, and congenital etiologies; overweight status; anxiety; chronic pain; previous treatment; radiotherapy; and duration of palsy (R2 = 0.261, P