Validation of assistive technology on psychoactive substances for visually impaired people

Abstract

Purpose: To validate the assistive technology “Drugs: reflection for prevention” to be used with visually impaired people.

Method: Quantitative and quasi-experimental study, contrasting knowledge before and after the use of the assistive technology with 140 visually impaired people in institutes and associations for people with visual impairment. A questionnaire with identification data, a pre-test, a post-test and a questionnaire to assess the assistive technology were applied. Data were described through means and standard deviations, and analyses included the McNemar test, the exact binomial distribution test, and the intraclass correlation coefficient.

Results: Participants were male (65.7%), 84.3% were blind, aged 37.1 years on average and with schooling of 10.1 years on average. There were more correct answers in the post-test (p <.001). The attributes of the assistive technology were considered adequate: objectives, access, clarity, structure and presentation, relevance and efficacy, and interactivity (p <.001).

Conclusions: The assistive technology “Drugs: reflection for prevention” was considered valid and reliable to inform visually impaired people about psychoactive substance abuse.

Implications for rehabilitation

• Created new tool for prevention substance abuse that can be accessed easily.

• Improved information about substance psychoactive for users of the assistive technology.

• Improved quality of life for its users.

Keywords:

• Nursing
• visually impaired people
• self-assistive devices
• substance-related disorders
• health education
• health promotion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical considerations

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Pernambuco, CAAE 08796212.2.0000.5208.