Chinese Health and Aging Project: Building Support through Community Engagement

这项应用旨在通过利用社区参与的全面模式，为以人口为基础的中国老年人相关健康问题的纵向研究奠定基础。多元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，我们必须准确地了解特定种族/民族人口中的相关健康问题。据估计，美国有380万中国人，芝加哥是中国人最多的城市之一。尽管增长迅速，但我们对中国老年人口面临的许多严重健康问题(认知障碍、身体残疾、种族歧视、心理困扰、社会孤立、孝顺、文化价值观和虐待老年人[虐待、忽视和剥削他人的老年人以及老年人自我忽视])有最基本的了解。此外，一直没有足够的社区网络和必要的支持，使中国社区能够充分参与健康科学研究。这些障碍需要社区和研究人员通过相互转让专业知识来进一步发展和实施可持续和平等的伙伴关系，以改善中国人口的健康。 在芝加哥华裔人群中进行社区参与的人口研究面临几个挑战，这使得拟议的发展工作成为进行基于人群的纵向队列研究的重要第一步。这些挑战是：1)美国中国老年人一直不愿参与政府资助的研究，可持续的社区支持不足；2)社区中的中国老年人在地方层面上的统计不完整；3)存在明显的语言和文化障碍，这使得以人口为基础的研究具有挑战性。在这项拟议的工作中，拉什健康老龄化研究所的一名双语和双文化首席研究员和一支经验丰富的跨学科调查团队正在与华人社区合作，以克服这些障碍。这项可行性研究的具体目的是：1)进一步动员社区建立文化上合适和可持续的合作伙伴关系，以支持这项研究；2)试点对唐人街老年居民进行随机整群普查；以及3)检查研究相关健康差距问题的语言和文化障碍。这一建议和社区参与活动的结果对于成功开展社区参与、以人口为基础的中国老年人相关健康问题纵向研究至关重要。

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.