Abstract
The Deaf community members of this community-campus partnership identified the lack of health information in American Sign Language (ASL) as a significant barrier to increasing the Deaf community’s health knowledge. Studies have shown that the delivery of health messages in ASL increased Deaf study participants’ cancer knowledge. Once health messages are available on the Internet, strategies are needed to attract viewers to the website and to make repeat visits in order to promote widespread knowledge gains. This feasibility study used the entertainment-education strategy of coupling cancer information with jokes in ASL to increase the appeal and impact of the health messages. ASL-delivered cancer control messages coupled with Deaf-friendly jokes were shown to 62 Deaf participants. Participants completed knowledge questionnaires before, immediately after, and 1 week after viewing the paired videos. Participants’ health knowledge statistically significantly increased after viewing the paired videos and the gain was retained 1 week later. Participants also reported sharing the newly acquired information with others. Statistically significant results were demonstrated across nearly all measures, including a sustained increase in cancer-information-seeking behavior and intent to improve health habits. Most participants reported that they would be motivated to return to such a website and refer others to it, provided that it was regularly updated with new jokes.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the many members of the Deaf community who served as advisors to this project, provided examples of Deaf humor, and served as research participants in this project.
Funding
The project described was supported by Grant Number R43DC009522 from the National Institute On Deafness And Other Communication Disorders and the National Cancer Institute Grants: R25 CA157430, R25 CA132702, and R25 CA108731. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute On Deafness And Other Communication Disorders, the National Cancer Institute, or the National Institutes of Health.
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Engelberg, M., Nakaji, M.C., Harry, K.M. et al. Promotion of Healthy Humor Cancer Education Messages for the Deaf Community. J Canc Educ 34, 323–328 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-017-1305-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-017-1305-5