Health literacy of hearing-impaired adolescents, barriers and misunderstandings they encounter, and their expectations
Adults who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HoH) have lower levels of health literacy compared to their counterparts who can hear. It is unclear, however, whether or not this inequality manifests in adolescence. This study aims to determine levels of health literacy among D/HoH adolescents and to iden...
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| Published in: | Disability and health journal Vol. 13; no. 4; p. 100929 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
United States
Elsevier Inc
01-10-2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Adults who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HoH) have lower levels of health literacy compared to their counterparts who can hear. It is unclear, however, whether or not this inequality manifests in adolescence.
This study aims to determine levels of health literacy among D/HoH adolescents and to identify barriers and misunderstandings they encounter as well as their expectations when applying for healthcare services.
This descriptive study was conducted with 88 D/HoH adolescents over the age of 15. The Health Sciences Faculty granted approval for the study.
Of the adolescents, 70.5% had inadequate, 19.3% had limited, 2.3% had adequate and 8% had excellent health literacy levels. Those who had difficulty in communicating with the doctor (25%), those who misused the prescribed medication (13.6%) and those who could not use the medication without help (43.2%) had low THLS scores (<0.05). Those who stated that they did not understand what the nurses said (43.2%) or the health education materials (56.8%) and had significantly low THLS scores (<0.05). Of these adolescents, 55.7% expected their prescriptions or care procedures to be given to them in writing, and 87.5% expected that these would be explained to them in sign language. A significant relationship was observed between hearing disability and health literacy (R = 0.659, R2 = 0.434) (p < 0.01).
Most D/HoH adolescents have a significantly lower level of health literacy, which is more likely linked with poor communication and misunderstandings concerning medication instructions. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 1936-6574 1876-7583 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.dhjo.2020.100929 |