PP109 - My Child Has What?" Hearing Loss Through an Appalachian Parent's Eye: A PhotoVoice Project

Abstract: The qualitative research methodology of PhotoVoice was utilized to investigate how parents in the Appalachian geographic region navigate their child's diagnosis of hearing loss. From the collected photographs and subsequent patient debrief interview several recurring themes emerged that gave the investigators insight into how parents are navigating this new diagnosis.

Summary: The purpose of this study was to investigate how Appalachian parents of children with hearing loss navigate their child's diagnosis. It was the hypothesis of the research team that a geographical limitation would highlight some of the struggles that are being faced by the parents in conjunction with a diagnosis of hearing loss.
The methodology utilized for this study was the qualitative method of PhotoVoice. Herein the participants were asked to take photographs that describe how they "see the world" when asked how they were navigating their child's diagnosis of hearing loss. Participants were asked to take anywhere from 1-5 photographs and were given the option to complete a prost project interview/debrief. Along with the photographs, participants were asked to write a short statement explaining how that photograph relates to their story. Once collected, the photographs and interview were analyzed using the theoretical lens of Intersectionality. The interview was hand coded using Descript software to search for recurring themes. 
From the data analysis, five main themes emerged: Living in Appalachia, child self-efficacy, parental confusion, parental positivity and "parents are parents". It was evident that the research team's hypotheses were correct. The participant explained how living in a rural area made access to healthcare more difficult. They highlighted the confusion they felt surrounding the diagnosis. Lastly, we also saw how participant salient identities contributed to her journey as well. Some limitations included a small sample size and being unable to perform a true linguistic analysis. 
Clinical applications of this work include: understanding underlying factors and their effect on our patients, parent perspective of audiological/medical terminology and parent thoughts and emotions as it relates to a new uncertain journey for them and their child.