Abstract
Hmoob Lub Neej (Hmong People’s Lives)
Maichou Lor, PhD, Assistant Professor, Nursing
Description: The Hmong are Wisconsin’s largest Asian American group.26 Having arrived in America as refugees following the Lao Civil War of 1972-1975, they have a disadvantaged socioeconomic profile and face physical and mental health burdens.27-28 They are underrepresented in existing population health studies and are often excluded from research due to barriers including limited English proficiency and poor access to translation and interpretation resources; a mismatch between Hmong oral culture and written surveys; and a lack of familiarity with and mistrust of research.13,26,40-41,44 The Hmoob Lub Neej (Hmong People’s Lives) project aims to address this important gap in knowledge, engage Hmong older adults in an innovative research study, and produce the data necessary for addressing health inequities experienced by this population. Thus far, the study has fielded a qualitative life history study collecting formative data and validated and pre-tested linguistically and culturally appropriate survey questions using cognitive interviews adapted specifically for Hmong participants. The next step is fielding a pilot survey collecting data on health, exposure to notable lifetime events (e.g., war, bereavement, migration, resettlement, and Contact PD/PI: Engelman, Michal Core-002 (002) Research Strategy Page 870 socioeconomic hardships), and individual, familial, and community supports that promote and enhance resilience in the Hmong refugee community. Support from CDHA will allow the project to expand the pilot survey sample and analyze the resulting data to generate preliminary findings and support an NIH R01 grant for scaling up the survey to a larger sample. CDHA themes: Place, Health, and Aging; Aging Trajectories & Health Disparities.