Background: We aim to analyse the existing health care-inequities particularly regarding preventable loss of sight, cognition, mobility, self-care, and communication between deaf and the non-deaf population in Colombia.

Methods: This study presents a secondary cross-sectional analysis of the Colombian NQLS, 2019. We included 289,558 participants in the analysis, stratified by whether they are deaf (n= 449) or non-deaf (n= 289,109). Odds ratios (ORs) were computed for various outcomes (difficulty/no difficulty, bad/good, yes/no, chronic illness/no chronic illness, consultation/no consultation, subsidised/contributory) for both deaf and non-deaf participants, using Fisher's exact test.

Findings: The prevalence of deafness in Colombia was 0.16%(95% CIs 0.14% to 0.17%) of the general population, which is lower than the global prevalence. Overall, deaf people reported significantly high rates (ORs= 4.8, 95% CIs 3.9 to 5.7, p-value< 0.001) of chronic illness compared to non-deaf participants. Deaf people reported the quality of health service provision when they go for prevention to be two times significantly bad as compared to the non-deaf population. Deaf persons are significantly (all p-values< 0.001) more likely to have additional activity limitations with regard to seeing (ORs= 4.0, 95% CIs 3.3 to 4.8), walking (ORs= 9.2, 95% CIs 7.6 to 11.2), cognitive functioning (ORs= 33.8, 95% CIs 27.9 to 40.9), self-caring (ORs= 25.0, 95% CIs 20.3 to 30.8) as well as communicating (ORs= 194.5, 95% CIs 154.0 to 247.8). We observed a similar trend in all the three age-groups considered-‘0-14’,‘15-64’, and ‘65+’years.

Interpretation: Deaf persons are experiencing significantly poorer health than the rest of the population, and experience potentially preventable loss of function in relation to mobility, sight, cognition, communication, and self-caring. This loss of functioning could be prevented. Poor health outcomes experienced by deaf persons are underpinned by health disparities in key areas of health, such as population coverage and service coverage, as well as the prevalence of chronic illness.