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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Barbara A. Berman, PhD, A2-125 CHS, UCLA-DCPCR, Box 956900, 650 Charles Young Drive South (Box 956900), Los Angeles, CA 90095-6900, Heidi B. Kleiger, BS, Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness (GLAD), 2222 Laverna Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90041, Roshan Bastani, PhD, Department of Health Services, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health, Box 951722, Los Angeles, CA 90095, Philip Zazove, MD, Univeristy of Michigan Health System, Department of Family Medicine, 1018 Fuller Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0708, and Leanne Streja, MS, A2-125 CHS, UCLA School of Public Health, Box 956900, 650 Charles Young Drive South (Box 956900), Los Angeles, CA 90095-6900, 3107949283, lstreja@ucla.edu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing (Deaf/HH) women face a multitude of economic, linguistic, and sociocultural barriers that hamper access to breast cancer screening services, and information, educational resources and programs that address the full scope of breast health. We report here on first-ever in-depth interviews to identify the knowledge, perceptions, and practices of Deaf/HH women relevant to breast cancer and breast health. The interviews were conducted in American Sign Language (ASL) among 68 Deaf/HH women 40+ years of age (mean age 60.7), including seven breast cancer survivors. We identified low levels of mammography screening among women with high school or less education, and incomplete and inaccurate information about breast cancer risk factors, symptoms, primary and secondary prevention strategies, and other aspects of breast health. We report these findings and our participants' perceptions of barriers to adequate information and sources facing members of this unique minority community. Recognizing that translation of programs for hearing women into the languages of the Deaf/HH does not suffice, we examine culturally appropriate educational strategies for reducing the health disparities in this underserved and understudied population, and identify ways in which our findings are relevant to low literacy, older, less well educated women, overall.

Learning Objectives:

• To better understand the unmet breast health and breast cancer programming needs of Deaf/HH women.
• To better understand the barriers to adequate breast health information and services among Deaf/HH women and strategies to address these needs.
• To better understand strategies for reducing breast health disparities among Deaf/HH women and other minority communities.

Keywords: Deaf, Breast Cancer Programs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation