Exploration of Deaf People’s Health Information Sources and Techniques for Information Delivery in Cape Town: A Qualitative Study for the Design and Development of a Mobile Health App

Abstract

BackgroundMany cultural and linguistic Deaf people in South Africa face disparity when accessing health information because of social and language barriers. The number of certified South African Sign Language interpreters (SASLIs) is also insufficient to meet the demand of the Deaf population in the country. Our research team, in collaboration with the Deaf communities in Cape Town, devised a mobile health app called SignSupport to bridge the communication gaps in health care contexts. We consequently plan to extend our work with a Health Knowledge Transfer System (HKTS) to provide Deaf people with accessible, understandable, and accurate health information. We conducted an explorative study to prepare the groundwork for the design and development of the system.ObjectivesTo investigate the current modes of health information distributed to Deaf people in Cape Town, identify the health information sources Deaf people prefer and their reasons, and define effective techniques for delivering understandable information to generate the groundwork for the mobile health app development with and for Deaf people.MethodsA qualitative methodology using semistructured interviews with sensitizing tools was used in a community-based codesign setting. A total of 23 Deaf people and 10 health professionals participated in this study. Inductive and deductive coding was used for the analysis.ResultsDeaf people currently have access to 4 modes of health information distribution through: Deaf and other relevant organizations, hearing health professionals, personal interactions, and the mass media. Their preferred and accessible sources are those delivering information in signed language and with communication techniques that match Deaf people’s communication needs. Accessible and accurate health information can be delivered to Deaf people by 3 effective techniques: using signed language including its dialects, through health drama with its combined techniques, and accompanying the information with pictures in combination with simple text descriptions.ConclusionsWe can apply the knowledge gained from this exploration to build the groundwork of the mobile health information system. We see an opportunity to design an HKTS to assist the information delivery during the patient-health professional interactions in primary health care settings. Deaf people want to understand the information relevant to their diagnosed disease and its self-management. The 3 identified effective techniques will be applied to deliver health information through the mobile health app.

<p>A qualitative study on the design and development of an mHealth app to facilitate communication with the Deaf community: perspective of community pharmacists</p>

“…Participants agreed that providing information in video form with texts would be helpful for Deaf patients. Chininthorn et al noted that an effective technique of delivering information to people who are DHoH is through pictures or videos with simple text descriptions, as it strengthens their understanding of diseases and medications 16. As individuals who are DHoH are visual learners and thinkers, illustrations and animations would help improve their retention of information, and pique their interest 26.…”

“…Similarly the CardioManager, an app developed to help patients self-manage their cardiovascular disease, reduced the cost of management of heart failure patients by 33%, and provided savings exceeding €9,000 per patient to the health care system 15. While a number of mHealth apps to assist communication between the Deaf and health care professionals have been developed in South Africa,16,17 Germany,18 and the US,19 none have been developed in Malaysia as yet.…”

Technologies for Health Education for the Deaf: Integrative Review

“…This fact can be observed in a study carried out in South Africa, with 23 deaf people and ten health professionals, with the objective of defining effective techniques to provide comprehensible information for the deaf, whose results point to the effectiveness of the use of sign language and illustrations associated with simple texts. 41 In addition to videos and printed technologies, another resource option found in the studies, which was used for health education for the deaf, was computer mediated, such as telehealth, websites and online courses. These options use distance education as a teaching method and are effective in promoting learning with the active involvement of students through an interactive scenario, with the possibility of associating previously acquired knowledge with new information.…”

Amplifying Positive Deviance with ICT

“…We are generalizing this tool to handle multiple limited interaction scenarios [3]. There are several scenarios in prototype: a visit to a pharmacy [5], international computer driver license (ICDL) training [17], and a diabetes information scenario [6].…”

“…for diabetes [6]. It must be noted that the initial idea for SignSupport came from Deaf people who had who had participated with us after years of ICT research projects.…”