Health disparities among Deaf communities from Colombia: assessing communication, technology and healthcare access
Introduction Despite efforts to improve health equity, there is still limited knowledge about the number and characteristics of people with disabilities, particularly the Deaf community. Our aim is to use linguistically and culturally adapted research instruments to measure key health indicators and...
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BMJ Publishing Group
2025-05-01
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| Series: | BMJ Global Health |
| Online Access: | https://gh.bmj.com/content/10/5/e018377.full |
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| author | Nora Groce Jyoti Dalal Minerva Rivas Velarde Laura Catalina Izquierdo Martínez Angela Martínez-R Jess Cuculick |
| author_facet | Nora Groce Jyoti Dalal Minerva Rivas Velarde Laura Catalina Izquierdo Martínez Angela Martínez-R Jess Cuculick |
| author_sort | Nora Groce |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction Despite efforts to improve health equity, there is still limited knowledge about the number and characteristics of people with disabilities, particularly the Deaf community. Our aim is to use linguistically and culturally adapted research instruments to measure key health indicators and priorities within the Deaf community from a low- and middle-income country—Colombia, contributing to a better understanding of health inequities.Methods We used data from the Health Survey for Deaf (HSD) and National Quality of Life Survey (NQLS) from Colombia. We included various communication and technology-related indicators—usage of smartphone, modes of interacting with healthcare personnel, along with health indicators—self-perception of health, healthcare quality, hospitalisation and functional difficulties in various domains. ORs were computed to depict the differences in two groups, adjusted for both age and gender, using logistic regressions.Results We included 204 and 877 Deaf participants from HSD and NQLS, respectively. Owning a phone was significantly associated with a better self-perception of health (ORs=2.27, 95% CI 1.63 to 3.17 for NQLS-Deafs; 1.49, 1.43 to 1.54 for NQLS-general population) but also with more functional difficulties corresponding to most domains (all ORs >1). However, for HSD datasets, we found that phone ownership was associated with having significantly less functional difficulties in moving hands (0.34, 0.14 to 0.81) and cognition (0.36, 0.15 to 0.89). Access to professional interpreting services was correlated with increased communication-related functional difficulties (2.02, 1.00 to 4.08), for HSD participants. Better self-perception of health was linked to fewer functional difficulties (all ORs <1), while recent hospitalisation was associated with more functional difficulties (all ORs >1).Conclusions We found that Deaf individuals generally experience poorer health outcomes compared with hearing individuals. To address these disparities, we recommend (1) improving data quality that could lead to targeted responses and monitoring of it and (2) implementing personalised health surveys that account for the Deaf population’s fluency in Spanish and Colombian Sign Language and their specific understanding of health issues. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-89d4f2ba308a4c6ea34172c6f9d0ff9c |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2059-7908 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Global Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-89d4f2ba308a4c6ea34172c6f9d0ff9c2025-08-20T02:57:33ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Global Health2059-79082025-05-0110510.1136/bmjgh-2024-018377Health disparities among Deaf communities from Colombia: assessing communication, technology and healthcare accessNora Groce0Jyoti Dalal1Minerva Rivas Velarde2Laura Catalina Izquierdo Martínez3Angela Martínez-R4Jess Cuculick54 Leonard Cheshire Centre, Institute of Epidemiology and Healthcare, University College London, London, UK1 Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland5 The Institute for Ethics, History, and the Humanities (iEH2), Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland1 Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland2 School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad del Rosario, Bogota, Colombia3 NTID Department of Liberal Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, USAIntroduction Despite efforts to improve health equity, there is still limited knowledge about the number and characteristics of people with disabilities, particularly the Deaf community. Our aim is to use linguistically and culturally adapted research instruments to measure key health indicators and priorities within the Deaf community from a low- and middle-income country—Colombia, contributing to a better understanding of health inequities.Methods We used data from the Health Survey for Deaf (HSD) and National Quality of Life Survey (NQLS) from Colombia. We included various communication and technology-related indicators—usage of smartphone, modes of interacting with healthcare personnel, along with health indicators—self-perception of health, healthcare quality, hospitalisation and functional difficulties in various domains. ORs were computed to depict the differences in two groups, adjusted for both age and gender, using logistic regressions.Results We included 204 and 877 Deaf participants from HSD and NQLS, respectively. Owning a phone was significantly associated with a better self-perception of health (ORs=2.27, 95% CI 1.63 to 3.17 for NQLS-Deafs; 1.49, 1.43 to 1.54 for NQLS-general population) but also with more functional difficulties corresponding to most domains (all ORs >1). However, for HSD datasets, we found that phone ownership was associated with having significantly less functional difficulties in moving hands (0.34, 0.14 to 0.81) and cognition (0.36, 0.15 to 0.89). Access to professional interpreting services was correlated with increased communication-related functional difficulties (2.02, 1.00 to 4.08), for HSD participants. Better self-perception of health was linked to fewer functional difficulties (all ORs <1), while recent hospitalisation was associated with more functional difficulties (all ORs >1).Conclusions We found that Deaf individuals generally experience poorer health outcomes compared with hearing individuals. To address these disparities, we recommend (1) improving data quality that could lead to targeted responses and monitoring of it and (2) implementing personalised health surveys that account for the Deaf population’s fluency in Spanish and Colombian Sign Language and their specific understanding of health issues.https://gh.bmj.com/content/10/5/e018377.full |
| spellingShingle | Nora Groce Jyoti Dalal Minerva Rivas Velarde Laura Catalina Izquierdo Martínez Angela Martínez-R Jess Cuculick Health disparities among Deaf communities from Colombia: assessing communication, technology and healthcare access BMJ Global Health |
| title | Health disparities among Deaf communities from Colombia: assessing communication, technology and healthcare access |
| title_full | Health disparities among Deaf communities from Colombia: assessing communication, technology and healthcare access |
| title_fullStr | Health disparities among Deaf communities from Colombia: assessing communication, technology and healthcare access |
| title_full_unstemmed | Health disparities among Deaf communities from Colombia: assessing communication, technology and healthcare access |
| title_short | Health disparities among Deaf communities from Colombia: assessing communication, technology and healthcare access |
| title_sort | health disparities among deaf communities from colombia assessing communication technology and healthcare access |
| url | https://gh.bmj.com/content/10/5/e018377.full |
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