Knowledge and Challenges Associated With Hearing Impairment in Affected Individuals From Cameroon (Sub-Saharan Africa).
Edmond Wonkam-Tingang, Karen Kengne Kamga, Samuel Mawuli Adadey and 4 others
PMID 36188771WHAT IT FOUND
Hearing impairment was described as a speech and communication disability, and stigma, cost, and missing sign language support limited education, work, and daily independence.
Key findings
01Participants described hearing impairment as a hearing and speech communication disability, while some communities also attributed it to curse, witchcraft, or intellectual disability.
02Family participants from multiplex families tended to attribute hearing impairment to genetic causes, while those from singleplex families mainly cited environmental causes.
03Access to education and healthcare was described as limited by lack of sign language translation and expensive audiology services.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Participants came from only 3 of Cameroon's 10 administrative regions, so views may not represent the whole country. Only 20 people were interviewed, and the authors say the findings cannot be confidently generalised nationally. Some participants were recruited from well-established schools for the deaf, so they may have had more education and awareness than people with hearing impairment outside those settings.
Declared interests
Funding was provided by the African Academy of Science/Wellcome Trust and the NIH (USA); the funders did not play any role in data collection and analysis, and decision to publish. The authors declared no commercial or financial conflicts.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these themes as evidence that any service improves hearing outcomes; the study only described perceptions and barriers among 20 participants from 3 regions of Cameroon.