title: Cancer prevention knowledge of people with profound hearing loss.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Deaf persons, a documented minority population, have low reading levels and difficulty communicating with physicians. The effect of these on their knowledge of cancer prevention recommendations is unknown.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study of 222 d/Deaf persons in Michigan, age 18 and older, chose one of four ways (voice, video of a certified American Sign Language interpreter, captions, or printed English) to complete a self-administered computer video questionnaire about demographics, hearing loss, language history, health-care utilization, and health-care information sources, as well as family and social variables. Twelve questions tested their knowledge of cancer prevention recommendations. The outcome measures were the percentage of correct answers to the questions and the association of multiple variables with these responses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants averaged 22.9% correct answers with no gender difference. Univariate analysis revealed that smoking history, types of medical problems, last physician visit, and women having previous cancer preventive tests did not affect scores. Improved scores occurred with computer use (p = 0.05), higher education (p < 0.01) and income (p = 0.01), hearing spouses (p < 0.01), speaking English in multiple situations (p < 0.001), and in men with previous prostate cancer testing (p = 0.04). Obtaining health information from books (p = 0.05), physicians (p = 0.008), nurses (p = 0.03) or the internet (p = 0.02), and believing that smoking is bad (p < 0.001) also improved scores. Multivariate analysis revealed that English use (p = 0.01) and believing that smoking was bad (p = 0.05) were associated with improved scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Persons with profound hearing loss have poor knowledge of recommended cancer prevention interventions. English use in multiple settings was strongly associated with increased knowledge.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. pzaz@med.umich.edu
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zazove
authors.forename: Helen E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Meador
authors.forename: Barbara D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: Ananda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sen
authors.forename: Daniel W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Gorenflo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires