CLINICAL VALIDATION OF PODCAST IN THE PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH VISUAL DISABILITIES
Visually Impaired Persons. Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Health Education. Self-Help Devices. Information Technology
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are frequent, recurrent and include a series of clinical syndromes acquired through contact with pathogenic microorganisms, which can be disseminated through vertical transmission, breastfeeding and, mainly, through unprotected sexual practice. The limitations of Visually Impaired People (PwD), with regard to sexual health, especially the practices that culminate in the prevention of STIs, may be linked to the scarcity in the amount of information passed on about sexual health. However, these limitations are not restricted to the social representations of these individuals, but to health care aspects, especially with regard to the development of strategies that favor safe sexual practices. In this scenario, health education manifests itself as an important strategy to overcome such obstacles, and can be developed from the production and use of materials adapted and accessible to visual PwD, such as Assistive Technologies (TA), that can be incorporated into social practices, such as the Podcast. To this end, clinically validating this tool becomes an important opportunity for information pertinent to sexual health to arrive with easy access and low cost to visual PwD. In this sense, this project aims to clinically validate a TA of the sound media type (Podcast) on STI/AIDS prevention. This is a methodological study, of a descriptive nature and quantitative approach. The Theory and Model for the Development of Psychological Material, proposed by Luiz Pasquali, will be used as a theoretical-methodological framework. The study will be carried out at the Institute of Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind of Rio Grande do Norte (IERC). The collected data will be consolidated in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and analyzed with the support of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. The analysis will take place using the Kappa coefficient (K), considering K ≥ 0.80 and the coefficient proposed by Gwet. The project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee involving human beings at the Federal University of Rio Grande in the North (UFRN), with CAAE No. 91753918.4.0000.5537, and Opinion nº. 2.866.088. The study will follow the ethical and legal principles that govern scientific research in human beings, advocated in Resolution No. 466/2012, of the National Health Council. It is hoped that the results of this research will favor the self-care of blind people and, consequently, promote quality of life and health, especially with regard to your sexual health, given that the sound media about STI/AIDS can be used as an accessible strategy for health education.