Participants and data collection

We conducted an observational, quantitative, cross-sectional study by administering an Arabic-translated version of the PSAS. The questionnaire was distributed between July 2017 and March 2018. We included patients who underwent thyroidectomies (either total or hemithyroidectomies) with or without concurrent neck dissection at 2 different tertiary care hospitals in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These patients agreed to participate in the study, and they were able to read and understand Arabic. Those patients who declined to participate in the study and those who were unable to read Arabic were excluded from this research.

The questionnaire was filled out twice by the same patients at least 2 months after surgery and one week later to test the reliability.