Deaf adults at higher risk for severe illness: COVID-19 information preference and perceived health consequences.
Christopher J Moreland, Raylene Paludneviciene, Jung Hyun Park and 2 others
PMID 33824053WHAT IT FOUND
Deaf and hard-of-hearing ASL users with medical conditions mostly used Internet text, TV, or family for COVID-19 information, not providers.
Older age and identifying as a person of color were linked to higher perceived risk.
Key findings
01Among DHH respondents with underlying medical conditions, 44.3% first used English-based Internet text and only 1.1% first went to a healthcare provider.
02In the weighted sample, health status and heart disease were significant predictors of perceived health consequences. Heart disease had a multivariable odds ratio of 15.10, with a 95% confidence interval of 1.84 to 123.72.
03In the medical-condition subsample, older age and identifying as a person of color were associated with higher perceived consequences. The adjusted odds ratios were 1.04 and 2.94.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Participants were recruited through social media and email, so they may be more comfortable with online devices than other DHH adults. The sample included only ASL users who were born deaf or became deaf before age 13, so it does not speak for all deaf or hard-of-hearing adults. The study measured what people thought would happen if they got COVID-19, not whether they actually became severely ill. Some estimates were imprecise. The heart disease odds ratio had a confidence interval from 1.84 to 123.72. The study did not include people under 18. The Discussion's statement about heart disease does not match the table's reported odds ratio.
Declared interests
This work was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health. No commercial sponsor or competing interest is reported in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the heart disease odds ratio as proof of actual severe COVID-19 risk. The survey measured perceived health consequences, not clinical outcomes, and the confidence interval was 1.84 to 123.72.