oa Communication Skills with the Unsighted and Visually Impaired During Medical Interview - Mosul, Iraq

Background: Disability is any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity (WHO, 2022). The numbers of visually impaired persons globally was 285 million during 2020 and grows by up to 2 million yearly (Jabnoun et al., 2016). They receive the least benefits from health care services (Pratt et al, 2018). Realizing the principles of human rights regarding health care provision (Duffly, 2022), communication is an important human feature during the medical interview (Ben-noun, 2014) and it is very important to deliver a useful health service in any health system (Kaplonyi, 2017). It has been noted that unsighted persons suffer from communication problems with health care providers that affect their health care.

Aim: To identify needs of unsighted persons during the medical interview.

Materials and Methods: This study was done in Um Al-Rabean Development Foundation for Blinds and Purblinds in Mosul, Iraq, using a case series study design from January1 to February 1, 2022. Sixty-seven blind (unsighted) persons. Data were collected by using an electronic data collection Google form consisting of two axes, the 1st one included the demographic information of the study sample, and the 2nd one included the doctor- communication skills followed during the medical interview with the unsighted patients.

Results: This study revealed that the participants’ response rate was equal among both sexes. Most of them were aged 18 years and above and about one third were married. The percentage of celibacy was high, about 58.2%. Only (44.8%) of respondents had access to education, and the percentage of government employees was very low at 26.9%. The doctors’ communication skills followed during the medical interview with the participants were weak; more than half of doctors did not introduce their names, lower their voice, or give enough time for the patient to present their problem; adding to that, 74.6% did not shake hands with patients (before the COVID-19 pandemic). 20% of doctors did not assist during seating, only one third asked permission before giving help, and only 25.4% of doctors treat unsighted patients as normal persons. Roughly one fifth of doctors called the participants by their names more than once.

Conclusion: Training of doctors in communication skills techniques concerning this group is seriously needed. We recommend broader research work on a larger sample to study this topic from the point of view of doctors and patients.