ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
This article is part of the Research TopicYouth Mental Health, Particularly in Asian PopulationsView all 99 articles
Anxiety, Depression, and HRQoL in Pediatric Microtia Patients Following Ear Reconstruction: A Cross-sectional Study
Provisionally accepted
Xinyi Liu1
Ying Huang1Lin Yang1
ENMING ZHANG2Jiafei Yang1Liujing Meng1Liping Ma1Zhengzhen Fu1Yanchun Zhou1Weiwei Bian1*- 1Department of Nursing, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- 2School of Nursing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
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Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the levels of anxiety, depression, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with congenital microtia after ear recontruction surgery and identify influencing factors of HRQoL. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 152 patients with congenital microtia (aged 8-18 years) who underwent ear reconstruction at a tertiary hospital in Shanghai from April 2023 to September 2024. The assessment tools, including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory Version 4.0 Generic Core Scales, were used to assess symptoms of anxiety, symptoms of depression and HRQoL within 24 hours postoperatively. Multiple linear regression was performed to explore the factors affecting HRQoL. Results: Postoperatively, 21.7% of patients with congenital microtia reported symptoms of anxiety, and 17.8% reported symptoms of depression. Patients with congenital microtia have significantly lower HRQoL scores than the healthy norm group. Anxiety and depression showed moderate Anxiety, depression, and HRQoL in microtia patients after surgery negative correlations with HRQoL score (r = -0.433 and -0.486, respectively, p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that residence (95% CI: -6.661, -0.902, p = 0.010), surgery type (95% CI: 2.113, 9.496, p = 0.002), pain score (95% CI: -1.836, -0.031, p = 0.043) and depression score (95% CI: -1.644, -0.318, p = 0.004) were significantly associated with HRQoL in patients with congenital microtia after surgery. Conclusion: Patients with congenital microtia experience significant psychological distress and reduced quality of life after ear reconstruction surgery, with anxiety, depression, pain, and socio-demographic factors playing critical roles. These findings underscore the necessity of an integrated care model that incorporates psychological evaluation, pain management, and personalized support to improve mental health and quality of life in these patients.
Keywords: Congenital Microtia, Anxiety, Depression, health-related quality of life, Ear Reconstruction
Received: 09 May 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Huang, Yang, ZHANG, Yang, Meng, Ma, Fu, Zhou and Bian. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Weiwei Bian, 13764962456@163.com
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