Deaf Persons' English Reading Levels and Associations with Epidemiological, Educational, and Cultural Factors

One hundred six Michigan d/Deaf persons, part of a study evaluating how to improve d/Deaf persons' understanding of cancer prevention recommendations, had reading levels determined using the Test of Reading Comprehension, Syntactic Sentences. Respondents averaged 52 years old, 59% female, 84% Caucasian, 58% married, and 75% Deaf community members. The mean Test of Reading Comprehension, Syntactic Sentences score was 6.1 (women: 6.2, men: 6.0). Higher scores were associated with greater income (p=.02), employment (p=.01), education (high school p=.002, some college p<.001), English use (child at home, teacher in school, at home now: all p<.001), a hearing spouse (p=.003), hard of hearing/d/Deaf father (p=.02), losing hearing after age 20 years, believing smoking is bad (p<.001), speaking with and satisfaction with physicians and nurses (p<.001), good communication with (p=.01), and comfort discussing cancer with doctors (p<.001). Lower scores were associated with using American Sign Language with physicians and nurses (.019) and Deaf community membership (p=.02). In multivariate analysis, higher scores were associated with higher income, college degree, and teacher using English. Reading levels of a predominantly Deaf population were low. Higher income, college degree, and teacher using English were associated with higher reading levels.