Chinese Health and Aging Project: Building Support through Community Engagement

本应用程序旨在利用社区参与的综合模型，为中国老年人相关健康问题的纵向人口研究奠定基础。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/族裔人口的相关健康问题。据估计，美国有380万中国人，而芝加哥是最大的华人聚集地之一。尽管人口快速增长，但我们对中国老年人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、文化价值观和老年人虐待（他人虐待、忽视和剥削老年人以及老年人自我忽视）只有最基本的了解。此外，没有足够的社区网络和必要的支持，使华人社区能够充分参与卫生科学研究。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，通过相互转移专业知识来改善中国人口的健康。

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.