Impact of an educational intervention on deaf and hard hearing females' knowledge and health beliefs regarding cervical cancer in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia: A theory-based study

Abstract

Deaf people experience barriers to communication that prevent access to health care and information that puts them at increased risk for lack of  knowledge about prevention and early detection approaches to cancers. With decreased screening, they may be at a higher risk of discovering  cervical cancer (CC) at a late stage. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on deaf and hard hearing females’  knowledge and health belief regarding cervical cancer in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. A quasi-experimental study was performed from the beginning of  April till the end of October 2021 using a convenience sample of 33 deaf and hard hearing married females students from Al-Amal center for deaf  and hard hearing females and Tabuk University. The data were collected using an interview schedule composed of three parts translated to  American Sign Language: background variables (basic data), cervical cancer knowledge quiz, and health belief model scale for CC and Pap smear  test. About 75.8% of the participants were older than 20 years. The intervention-based HBM showed significant improvement in the overall  knowledge score after the intervention compared to pre-intervention (FET = 16.345 P = 0.000). Moreover, significant enhancements (P<0.05) in all  HBM construct scores after the HBM intervention compared to the pre-intervention. HBM-based educational interventions can be useful  educational modalities for deaf and hard hearing populations. This intervention effectively enhanced the deaf and hard hearing females' overall  knowledge and health beliefs scores.