Abstract
A study was undertaken to investigate the applicability of utility theory to cleft lip and palate treatment decision making. Questionnaires were used to assess value judgments and attitudes toward risk from 119 individuals associated with seventeen cleft lip and palate treatment centers. Significant differences were found to exist between the values expressed by clinicians grouped according to their specialty or the facility to which they were affiliated. Fathers of cleft lip and palate children differed from cleft palate teams in their judgments regarding the relative values of speech and cosmetic treatment outcomes. No such differences were found between team members and mothers, however. It is suggested that these differences affect the desirability of treatment decisions and the outcomes that follow from them. Therefore, cleft lip and palate treatment planning and the evaluation of alternative therapeutic interventions might be based on a mathematical theory of decision making that explicitly incorporates the subjective assessment of a child's habilitative needs and the goals of the habilitative process.
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