Can Cancer Education Programs Improve Health Literacy Among Deaf and Hard of Hearing Patients: a Systematic Review

Patients affected from hearing loss face many problems when visiting oncologists. We conducted a systematic review to survey if cancer education programs can promote health literacy among deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) patients. The authors searched two databases for RCTs, and cohort studies with interventions promoting cancer health literacy for adult DHH patients. Risk of bias was assessed with SIGN Methodology Checklist for RCTs, and cohort studies. Significance of mean changes over time, and mean differences between comparison groups were used to present outcomes of each study. Surveyed interventions addressed three domains: cancer knowledge, coping skills, and cancer screening. Key information was gathered and synthesized providing a juxtaposition of the content and presenting important effects in detail. Nine RCTs and seven cohorts with 1865 participants were included. In total, 13 studies showed that cancer health literacy interventions improved mean scores significantly from pre- to post-test measures. There are hints that captioning and written texts may be sufficient for milder forms of hearing loss. Three studies showed that resiliency skill training promotes various domains of well-being. Three studies indicated that educational interventions encourage cancer screening practices. Educational programs are an effective way to promote cancer health literacy among DHH patients to facilitate communication with oncologists. As extent of hearing loss was not assessed, the authors cannot say the degree to which results are applicable to all degrees of hearing loss. To obtain hard data, further studies with more diverse populations, various cancer entities, different methods, and exact hearing loss assessments are required.