Michael McKee|Paul Winters|Ananda Sen|Philip Zazove|Kevin Fiscella
Emergency Department utilization among Deaf American Sign Language users
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor|University of Rochester|University of Michigan–Ann Arbor|University of Michigan–Ann Arbor|University of Rochester
deaf american sign language asl users comprise linguistic minority population poor health care access due communication barriers low health literacy potentially health care barriers could increase emergency department ed use compare ed use deaf nondeaf patients retrospective cohort medical records sample derived 400 randomly selected charts 200 deaf asl users 200 hearing english speakers outpatient primary care health center high volume deaf patients abstracted data included patient demographics insurance health behavior ed use past 36 months deaf patients likely never smokers insured medicaid adjusted analysis deaf individuals significantly likely use ed odds ratio 197 95 confidence interval ci 111351 prior 36 months deaf american sign language users appear greater odds elevated ed utilization compared general hearing population efforts understand drivers increased ed utilization among deaf asl users much needed