The group of deaf people in Brazil is considered significant. Deafness can lead to
emotional disorders, among them anxiety. Thus, the aim of this study was to measure
anxiety reported among deaf and hearing people, with application of the Visual Analogue
Mood Scale (VAMS) standard and adapted to Brazilian sign language. The sample
consisted of 62 participants were divided into hearing group (n = 31) and deaf group (n =
31) mean age of 31 (±7.53) and 31 (±7.69) years, respectively, of both sexes, paired for
age, sex, income and education level . The application of VAMS were individually and
data were analyzed for factors: anxiety, physical sedation, mental sedation, other feelings
and the total index scale. The data was preceded by the application of the normality test
(Kolmogorov-Smirnov) and equal variance test. For data that obeyed these tests, we used
the Student t test to compare the factors of VAMS; between groups, between male and
female, within groups and between groups; at different income levels, within the groups
and between groups; in different years of study, within groups and between groups. When
it was not possible to satisfy the criteria of normality and homogeneity of variance test was
used non-parametric Mann-Whitney (U). It was adopted a significance level of p ≤ 0.05.
We analyzed the correlation in the variables, income, education level and age with each of
the scale factors, in the hearing group and the deaf group. The results showed statistically
significant difference between groups in the index of physical sedation, being lower in
deaf than in the hearing group. In the analysis between groups, hearing and deaf,
distributed by sex, was expressed statistically significant in the factor other feelings, being
higher in the deaf, both females and males in relation to the male hearing group. In the
variables income and education level were statistically significant differences in the
components of VAMS, anxiety, mental sedation and physical sedation, between and within
groups. In the correlation analysis, the hearing group, positive correlation was found in the
variable income and education level versus physical sedation and positive correlation in
the variable age versus anxiety. In the deaf group was a positive correlation in the variable
age versus physical sedation. We conclude that the use of scales to assess anxiety is
important and valuable for field research, and VAMS adapted to Brazilian sign language
was sensitive to evaluate anxiety in deaf, it facilitates the inclusion diagnosis of this
specific population, which is sometimes sub diagnosed.
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