QUALITY OF LIFE IN DEAF SIGN LANGUAGE USERS IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL PSYCHOLOGICAL DOMAIN

Introduction: Deaf users of Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) constitute part of a population who need to integrate and interact with other people in society. However, many Libras users are not able to communicate through spoken Portuguese and this may have an impact on their quality of life (QoL). Few studies have investigated factors that influence the quality of life of Libras users. Objective: To verify how a group of Libras users, who lives in the South of Brazil, perceive their QoL, especially in the psychological domain. Method: 60 deaf sign language users participated in this study by completing two questionnaires: 1) WHOOQL-BREF instrument in Portuguese written language and/or WHOOQL-Bref - Libras and 2) Identification questionnaire. The research was conducted between, July 2015 February 2016. Results: From the 60 deaf sign language users, 20% were male and 40% female. The mean age was 28 years old, with high school and college education. Overall mean score on WHOOQL-Bref was 43.3%. The Psychological domain have a score (61,26%) Conclusion: Deaf sign language users have low results in the Psychological Domain when compared to hearing people research results. There is association between the results in this domain scores with lack of accessibility and interaction, negative thoughts and depression. Article visualizations