Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Department of Health Education and Behavior, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2021 Dec 28;29(1):213-216. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocab239.
Language status can be conceptualized as an equity-relevant variable, particularly for non-English-speaking populations. Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals who use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate comprise one such group and are understudied in health services research. DHH individuals are at high-risk of receiving lower-quality care due to ineffective patient-provider communication. This perspective outlines barriers to health equity research serving DHH ASL-users due to systems developed by large-scale informatics networks (eg, the Patient-Centered Clinical Outcomes Research Network), and institutional policies on self-serve cohort discovery tools. We list potential to help adequate capture of language status of DHH ASL-users to promote health equity for this population.
语言状况可以被概念化为一个与公平相关的变量，特别是对于非英语为母语的人群。使用美国手语（ASL）进行交流的聋人和重听（DHH）人群就是这样一个群体，在健康服务研究中研究不足。由于患者与提供者之间的沟通无效，DHH 个体接受低质量护理的风险很高。本观点概述了由于大型信息学网络（例如，以患者为中心的临床结果研究网络）开发的系统以及机构关于自助队列发现工具的政策，为 DHH ASL 用户提供服务的健康公平研究面临的障碍。我们列出了帮助充分捕捉 DHH ASL 用户语言状况的潜力，以促进这一人群的健康公平。
