Alcohol Use Research in the U.S. Deaf Community: 21st Century Advances

The purpose of the current review was to summarize and synthesize recent literature on alcohol use in the U.S. Deaf community, and to subsequently provide recommendations for important next steps in the field of Deaf behavioral health research. We included peer-reviewed journal articles with original data published during or after 2000 that discuss Deaf people in the U.S.

Alcohol-related research in the Deaf community has evolved substantially since 2000. A key contributor to this evolution has been the impact of technology on treatment, assessment, and the conduct of research with Deaf people. Several authors were ahead of their time and proposed telehealth as a solution for Deaf people’s access barriers. Such technological advances have provided a new foundation for recent measure translation and validation efforts, as well as the blossoming field of Deaf intervention development.

The continuation of these lines of research – measure validation and intervention development – are critical for increasing access to recovery supports, reducing behavioral health disparities, and supporting the Deaf community’s overall wellbeing. Future research should focus on formally identifying protective factors and mechanisms that lead to positive change. Such information is essential for further intervention development work, ensuring the design of optimally effective approaches that target the factors which uniquely drive Deaf people’s therapeutic change.