Factors Contributing to Quality of Life in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Adults

This research aimed to assess quality of life in deaf and hard of hearing adults and examine the impact severity of hearing loss, community involvement, community preference, cultural competence, and language competence have on quality of life. Forty-nine deaf and hard of hearing participants completed a survey regarding their cultural identity and quality of life. The survey was composed of portions of the Deaf Acculturation Scale (DAS) and a modified version of the WHOQOL-BREF. Observation oriented modeling was used to identify patterns in the data to answer the research questions. The first research hypothesis was that persons who identified as bicultural would have increased quality of life over persons who identified as deaf and hearing. Results supported increased social and physical quality of life in the bicultural group (social PCC = 72.73, c-value = 0.90; physical PCC = 75.76; c-value = 0.04). The second research hypothesis was that persons with a moderate to severe hearing loss who were highly involved in the deaf culture would have a higher quality of life than persons with moderate to severe hearing loss who were highly involved in the hearing culture. Results supported increased psychological quality of life in the moderate to severe hearing loss and deaf group (PCC = 68.75; c-value = 0.12). The third research aim explored factors that impact quality of life. Results indicated there were no remarkable patterns. These results indicate that additional factors, which were not measured in this survey, may substantially impact the quality of life in persons who are deaf and hard of hearing.