336121
Health status and behaviors of adults with hearing loss: Results of the 2011, 2013, and 2014 Montana Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Surveys
Meg Traci, PhD,
1) Rural Institute and 2) School of Community and Public Health Sciences, University of Montana Rural Institute, Missoula, MT
<>The Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) are a growing portion of the population. To monitor the health of this population, Montana included hearing status questions in the state-added Behavioral Risk Factor Survey (BRFSS) questionnaires (2011, 2013, 2014) that paralleled the wording of the vision questions in each year’s respective BRFSS core questionnaire. Accordingly, questions shifted from prompts for self-reports of having been told by a health professional of a ‘hearing impairment’ (2011) to self-reports of ‘any trouble hearing’ (2011) to self-reports of ‘serious hearing difficulty or deafness’ (2014). In 2011 and 2013, 10.7% and 17.3% of adults had hearing loss, respectively. Data (2011; 2013) showed Montana DHH adults were more likely to have a usual primary care provider (79.5%; 77.8%) and a flu shot (38.6%; 46.6%) and less likely to be overweight (32.4%; 32.9%) compared to adults without hearing loss. Also, DHH adults were as likely to have a pneumonia vaccination (73.4%; 69.6%) and wear a seat belt (69.5%; 72.0%) as adults without hearing loss. More negatively, DHH adults were more likely to be ‘not physically active’ (31.5%; 29.7%) and to have diabetes (15.3%; 14.9%) compared to adults without hearing loss. DHH adults also were as likely as thosewithout hearing loss to experience poor mental health (35.8%; 34.7%) and to smoke (24.7%; 20.6%) compared to those without hearing loss.Findings from the 2014 state BRFSS and from multivariate analyses controlling for sociodemographic factors, including age and urban/rural residency, will be presented with discussion of limitations and future directions.
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Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Chronic disease management and prevention
Communication and informatics
Diversity and culture
Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Learning Objectives:
Discuss heterogeneity of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) population; Describe methods for including persons with hearing loss in Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Surveys and limitations; Understand health priorities of urban and rural county DHH residents in a rural state.
Keyword(s): Disabilities, Surveillance
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Dr. Traci is a developmental psychologist and research associate professor with expertise in both early childhood and human life-span development and over twenty years work experience at The University of Montana Rural Institute: A Center for Excellence in Disability Education, Research, and Services. Dr. Traci has served as project director on consecutive CDC-funded research projects and state programs since 2000 to further the health of populations with disability.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
