Patient Reported Outcomes, COVID-19 Knowledge And Perceived Risks, And Healthcare Among Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Adults In The U.S.

Current, widely used NIH-funded patient-reported outcome measurement systems (PROMIS) include domains that assess global, physical, mental, and social health from the patient’s perspective.

PROMIS is heavily dependent on English, a serious barrier to DHH patients who use American Sign Language (ASL) and demonstrate low English proficiency.

In 2015, PI Kushalnagar was awarded an R01 to address this knowledge gap through 1) linguistic and psychometric validation of PROMIS- deaf Profile in ASL and 2) cross-sectional analysis of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in a U.S. sample of DHH adults who use ASL. We have added revised aims to address the urgent issues related to coronavirus.

This revised application addresses an immediate need to create an online ASL/English survey to quickly deploy and assess an underserved DHH population’s knowledge/attitude toward physical distancing, self-perceived risk for COVID-19, patient-physician communication, and healthcare access experience.

This study will also gather new data from key stakeholders that work with this population and will be used to inform the correct interpretation of the quantitative findings from PROs and COVID- 19 data. Together, using a mixed-methods approach, the team will integrate quantitative PROs and COVID-19 data with stakeholder qualitative data to enlighten new findings and provide the necessary foundation for public health policy and program strategies aimed at improving human communication in the DHH population.