Developing a standardized comprehensive health survey for use with deaf adults

THERE IS LIMITED INFORMATION on how communication barriers impact on the health of deaf individuals. The present article describes the development of a standardized interview tool to collect health-related information from deaf adults via face-to-face interviews in American Sign Language (ASL). Questions were selected largely from existing standardized questionnaires. Key steps in standardizing the instrument included the creation of an ASL gloss version of the survey and extensive interviewer training. The instrument was pilot-tested and revised prior to implementation. There were 139 questions on the final instrument. A total of 203 interviews were conducted between November 2002 and March 2003. A standardized interview survey administered in ASL proved an effective and well-accepted means of collecting health-related information from a diverse sample of deaf individuals. Several challenges were encountered throughout the process, and the resulting lessons will be useful to future research efforts.