Validated composite assessment scales for the global face.
BACKGROUND
Twenty grading scales have been developed to assess age-related facial changes. Until now, the validity with regard to the patient's actual age and the clinical importance of combined measurement tools to describe facial aging was unclear.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the reliability and validity of a total face score and three global face assessment scales for estimated age, estimated aesthetic treatment effort, and signs of aging in the facial units.


METHODS
Descriptive, reliability, correlation, and principal component analyses based on the assessment of 50 subjects by 12 raters using the 20 grading scales and the global face assessment scales.


RESULTS
Inter- and intrarater reliability was high for the total face score and for the scales on estimated age and aesthetic treatment effort. Actual age was highly correlated with these three measures. Facial aging was indicated particularly by scales of the lower face.


CONCLUSIONS
The aesthetic grading scales and global scales on estimated age and aesthetic treatment effort are reliable and valid instruments. The results suggest that a more-comprehensive evaluation of the human face and its age-related changes can help to identify important areas of facial aging and to define optimal aesthetic treatment strategies.
Division of Evidence Based Medicine, Klinik für Dermatologie, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charit Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, Berlin, Germany. mail@rzany-berlin.de
Berthold
B
Rzany
Alastair
A
Carruthers
Jean
J
Carruthers
Timothy C
TC
Flynn
Thorin L
TL
Geister
Roman
R
Görtelmeyer
Bhushan
B
Hardas
Silvia
S
Himmrich
Derek
D
Jones
Maurício
M
de Maio
Cornelia
C
Mohrmann
Rhoda S
RS
Narins
Rainer
R
Pooth
Gerhard
G
Sattler
Larry
L
Buchner
Monica
M
Merito
Constanze
C
Fey
Martina
M
Kerscher
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004954:Esthetics; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010781:Photography; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015361:Rhytidoplasty; D015595:Skin Aging / Q000502:physiology*