Focus groups with deaf and hearing youths in Brazil: improving a questionnaire on sexual behavior and HIV/AIDS.

The authors' aim is to describe the analysis of focus group discussions with deaf and hearing adolescents. They conducted focus groups to improve a questionnaire that will be computerized to assess the knowledge about HIV/AIDS and sexual behavior and attitudes of deaf and hearing youths in the south of Brazil. They developed four groups each with three participants aged 18 to 20 years, grouped by gender and hearing status. The analysis emphasizes discourse units formed by a portion of consecutive or nonconsecutive statements by several speakers and that developed around a topic of discussion. The main aspects improved in the questionnaire, adding confidence and reliability to the research, were choice of words or expressions, contextual differences between the target population and the researchers due to age and cultural and educational backgrounds, and the appropriateness of content in questions and answers.