By Jill Pease

A University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions team has received the 2023 Editor’s Award from the editor-in-chief and editors of Perspectives of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Special Interest Groups, an online peer reviewed journal.
The team’s paper, “Disparities in Health Care Utilization Among Deaf and Hard of Hearing Adults,” was recognized as an impactful work that meets the highest quality standards in research design and presentation.
The study’s lead author, Valeria Gonzalez Perez, M.A., CCC-SLP, is a 2023 graduate of the college’s master’s in communication sciences and disorders program. She was inspired to explore the topic of health care utilization among members of the Deaf community after learning about the health care communication barriers experienced by her teacher and mentor, Zulma “Yary” Santiago, M.A., a senior lecturer in the UF PHHP department of speech, language, and hearing sciences, and an instructor of American Sign Language and Deaf culture.
“There is an extensive amount of research on health disparities when it comes to age, race, sex and ethnicity, but little to no research has been reported about the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, or DHH, communities,” said Gonzalez Perez, who now works as a speech-language pathologist in Miami. “Working with Professor Yary and my research mentor, Dr. Charles Ellis, we asked ourselves what research there was on the DHH population when it came to health disparities. One question ended up leading into investigative work which later led to a research paper.”
Using data from the 2021 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, Gonzalez, Santiago, Ellis and Molly Jacobs, Ph.D., an associate professor in the UF PHHP department of health services research, management and policy, found a wide gap in health care utilization among the DHH population compared to adults without any hearing difficulties. Members of the DHH community were less likely to have a personal health care provider or a routine checkup within the last two years, but were more likely to have forgone health care due to difficulty paying.
“The health disparities among the DHH populations are mainly caused by communication barriers, which lead to malpractice, negative experiences and many other issues,” Gonzalez said. “It is important to provide our patients with translators and most importantly, empathy and patience.”
The Editor’s Award will be formally presented during the Researcher-Academic Town Meeting at the 2024 ASHA Convention held in December in Seattle, Washington.
Undergraduate or master’s level students serving as lead author on a published research paper are uncommon and a testament to the hard work and dedication of the student, said Charles Ellis Jr., Ph.D., CCC-SLP, professor and chair of the department of speech, language, and hearing sciences.
“Student authorship most commonly occurs at the doctoral level,” Ellis said. “Being able to engage a student at the undergraduate or master’s level requires the identification of a top notch student and one who is willing to work outside of their already busy schedule to accomplish the publication goal. Val was one of those rare students.”