“Little is known about disease trends, underlying attitudes, or health behaviors among Deaf or hard-of-hearing people,” says Thomas A. Pearson, M.D. Ph.D. MPH, the NCDHR Principal Investigator/Program Director. “This population is woefully understudied and underserved.”
Core research
This project is meant to assess the levels and determinants of risk behaviors and disease in the Deaf population. We will compare these findings with local and national data and Healthy People 2010 objectives in order to better define health disparities in the Rochester Deaf population. With this project we will develop measures and methods that will be used in research and health surveillance with Deaf populations in other locations. We are adapting questions from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), and the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) to be accessible to various populations of Deaf people, including ASL-users and those with low English literacy.
