Quality of life analysis of families having deaf children assisted in a reference center of the Unified Health System

DOI: 10.15343/0104-7809.201640018193

Abstract

The family plays a fundamental role in promoting the health of their children. Regarding hearing impairment, the
interaction between deaf family-child dyad enables the appropriate language development, social and emotional of the
child. For this a good quality of family life is essential. This study aimed to investigate the perception of quality of life for
families who have a member with a hearing impairment and relate with everyday communication. The study included
20 families of hearing impaired children who attend a middle complexity center of reference in the Health-SUS System.
In the research were used the questionnaire of quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) and “Everyday Things that Interfere with
Communication between Families and Individuals with Hearing Impairment”, developed by the researchers. There was
a correlation between quality of life and interference with communication in deaf-child dyad family in all domains of
WHOQOL-BREF. The greater the perception in the physical domain, the less communicative difficulties in the presence
of electronics noise. The higher the psychological domain, the less interference from electronic and competitive speech
communication. The less the social field, the less interference from noise electronics, competitive speech and absence
of orofacial reading communication. Finally, the higher the environmental sphere, the less interference from electronics
communication. It is concluded that investigate the quality of life of the family can help in the planning and development
of therapeutic strategies, maximizing the family and child well-being through more contextualized interventions the
reality of the patient.