Health education for deaf Romanian children: parents' opinions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on parents of children with hearing disabilities from Romania and has three objectives. First, it assesses their characteristics regarding use of communication technology. Second, it investigates their opinions regarding the importance of school-based education for healthy lifestyle promotion among their children. Third, it evaluates the availability for their involvement in educational activities using face-to-face approach and communication technology dedicated to helping parents to promote healthy lifestyle among their children, as well as factors which influence this availability. Design/methodology/approach The study was performed in October-November 2015 in two schools deserving children with hearing disabilities from North-West part of Romania. Anonymous questionnaire were filled in by 182 parents. Findings The majority of parents recognize the importance of school-based health education and more than 77 per cent totally agree that it should include issues regarding healthy nutrition, promotion of physical activity and smoking prevention. In total, 80.2 per cent of the parents declared that they are interested to participate in educational activities organized periodically at school and 66.5 per cent declared their interest in educational activities developed through communication technology in order to help them to stimulate the adoption of healthy lifestyle among their children. The availability was influenced by residence, educational level, understanding the importance of parents' involvement, characteristics regarding the use of communication technology. Originality/value This represents the first study from Romania investigating the opinions and availability for their involvement with regard to school health education among parents of children with hearing deficiencies. The results have several implications for health education among children with hearing deficiencies and their parents.