Chinese Health and Aging Project: Building Support through Community Engagement

本申请旨在通过利用社区参与的综合模式，为中国老年人相关健康问题的纵向人群研究奠定基础。多样化的美国人口正在迅速老龄化;因此，从公共卫生的角度来看，我们必须准确了解特定种族/民族人群中的相关健康问题。据估计，美国有380万中国人，芝加哥是最大的华人聚集地之一。尽管增长迅速，但我们对中国老年人口面临的许多关键健康问题（认知障碍、身体残疾、种族歧视、心理困扰、社会孤立、孝道、文化价值观和虐待老人[老人虐待、忽视和剥削他人以及老人自我忽视]）有最初步的了解。此外，社区网络和支持不足，使华人社区能够充分参与健康科学研究。这些障碍需要进一步发展和实施社区和研究人员之间的可持续和平等的伙伴关系，通过相互转让专业知识来改善中国人口的健康。 在芝加哥中国人群中开展社区参与人群研究的几个挑战使拟议的开发工作成为开展纵向人群队列研究的重要第一步。这些挑战是：1）美国华裔老年人不愿意参与政府资助的研究，可持续的社区支持也不够; 2）社区中华裔老年人的地方一级统计不完整; 3）语言和文化障碍明显，使基于人口的研究具有挑战性。在这项拟议的工作中，拉什健康老龄化研究所的双语和双文化首席研究员和经验丰富的跨学科研究团队正在与中国社区合作，以克服这些障碍。这项可行性研究的具体目标是：1）进一步让社区参与，建立一个文化上适当的和可持续的合作伙伴关系，以支持研究; 2）对唐人街老年居民进行随机抽样普查; 3）检查研究相关健康差异问题的语言和文化障碍。这项建议和社区参与活动的结果可能是至关重要的，以社区参与的纵向人口为基础的研究，在中国老年人的相关健康问题的成功进行。

This application aims to set the foundation for a longitudinal population-based study of relevant health issues in older Chinese persons by leveraging a comprehensive model of community engagement. The diverse US population is rapidly aging; as such, it is imperative from a public health perspective that we have accurate understanding of relevant health issues among specific racial/ethnic populations. There are an estimated 3.8 million Chinese in the US, and Chicago has one of the largest aggregations. Despite the rapid growth, we have the most rudimentary understanding of many critical health issues facing the older Chinese population (cognitive impairment, physical disability, racial discrimination, psychological distress, social isolation, filial piety, cultural values, and elder mistreatment [elder abuse, neglect and exploitation perpetrated by others as well as elder self-neglect]. Furthermore, there has been inadequate community network and support necessary to empower the Chinese community to be fully engaged in health sciences research. These impediments necessitate the further development and implementation of sustainable and equal partnership of both community and researchers through reciprocal transfer of expertise to improve the health of the Chinese population. Several challenges to conducting a community-engaged population study in a Chicago Chinese population make the proposed developmental work an important first step to conducting a longitudinal population-based cohort study. These challenges are: 1) US Chinese older persons have been reluctant to participate in government sponsored research and sustainable community support has been inadequate; 2) there is incomplete enumeration at the local level of Chinese older persons in the community; and 3) there are marked linguistic and cultural barriers that make a population-based study challenging. In this proposed work, a bilingual and bicultural principal investigator and an experienced interdisciplinary investigative team at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging are collaborating with Chinese community to overcome these barriers. The specific aims of this feasibility study are to: 1) Further engage the community to build a culturally appropriate and sustainable collaborative partnership in support of the study; 2) Pilot a random block census of older Chinatown residents; and 3) Examine the linguistic and cultural barriers of studying relevant health disparity issues. The findings from this proposal and community engagement activities can be critical to the successful conduct of a community-engaged longitudinal population-based study of relevant health issues in Chinese older persons.