sábado, 12 de marzo de 2011

Deaf Sign Language Users, Health Inequities, and Public Health | Preventing Chronic Disease: March 2011: 10_0065





Volume 8: No. 2, March 2011

SPECIAL TOPIC
Deaf Sign Language Users, Health Inequities, and Public Health: Opportunity for Social Justice

Steven Barnett, MD; Michael McKee, MD, MPH; Scott R. Smith, MD, MPH; Thomas A. Pearson, MD, PhD, MPH

An adaptation of this article in American Sign Language is available in the Appendix
Suggested citation for this article: Barnett S, McKee M, Smith SR, Pearson TA. Deaf sign language users, health inequities, and public health: opportunity for social justice. Prev Chronic Dis 2011;8(2).

http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2011/mar/10_0065.htm. Accessed [date].

PEER REVIEWED

Introduction
Inequities in health and health care have increasingly become an area for concern and action for public health professionals, clinicians, policy makers, and communities. Research has documented inequities in the prevalence of chronic diseases of subpopulations defined by education, income, race and ethnicity, and English proficiency. Justice, a cornerstone of medical ethics, calls for corrective actions (1).

We contend that all communities contain a minority group whose health needs are understudied and underserved. This group is the sign language–using deaf population. Most sign language users have been deaf since birth or early childhood (2-7). Sign language is not global nor is it based on a local spoken language. For example, British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL) are distinct languages with little in common with the English language or each other. In the United States, an estimated 100,000 to 1 million people use ASL as their primary language. We describe 4 issues that underlie health inequities experienced by deaf sign language users and propose 6 public health approaches to address these health and health care inequities to promote health and prevent chronic diseases.

full-text:
Preventing Chronic Disease: March 2011: 10_0065

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