Johns Hopkins
School of Nursing faculty members Hae-Ra H. Han and
Miyong T. Kim and co-authors describe in April's issue of
Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health the
personal- and community-level obstacles that hinder
inclusion of Korean-Americans in health promotion research
programs.
In "Barriers to and Strategies for Recruiting
Korean-Americans for Community-Partnered Health Promotion
Research," the authors analyzed 14 prior studies involving
more than 2,400 Korean-Americans. Barriers to recruitment
efforts among this "hard-to-reach" population include
cultural beliefs and attitudes, particularly what authors
describe as "a crisis-oriented system of care in which
preventive medicine or health promotion is ignored";
reliance on traditional medicine; language, gender and
age-related issues; low or no health care insurance
coverage; and a general lack of understanding about
research studies. The successful strategies outlined for
countering these obstacles are cultural competencies;
culturally sensitive information materials; a better
understanding of traditions, values, lifestyles and
practices; using ethnic media and ethnic churches as
communications tools; building community partnerships;
community asset mapping; and utilizing bilingual nurses.
The authors advise that successful strategies will be
undertaken by researchers — including those who are
bilingual and bicultural themselves — who
continuously assess both barriers and strategies and employ
a "cultural humility" that does not assume inherent
cultural knowledge as the norm.
Han and Kim note that "this socially/linguistically
isolated population may not have been 'hard to reach' after
all. Rather, they may simply have been 'hardly reached' by
researchers."
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