The needs of the deaf and hard of hearing when seeking pharmaceutical care

Lack of access to health care due to language barriers is an important public health issue. For the 40,000 Malaysians who are functionally deaf, language barriers could lead to challenges in communicating with providers, low medication adherence, and poor health outcomes.1 Deaf and hard-of-hearing (HOH) individuals have been shown to have lower health literacy levels compared to their hearing counterparts with the same level of formal education.2 It is also well documented that health professionals are generally unprepared to understand or serve the needs of deaf and HOH patients.3–7 Due to these reasons, deaf and HOH patients tend to avoid using health care services, and have reported lower satisfaction with their providers.3,8