Thi Bao Ngan Van
Research Mentor: James Huynh
Mentor Department: Health Management and Policy, Public Health
Author(s): Thi Bao Ngan Van, James Huynh
Session: Session 6 (3:00 PM – 3:50 PM)
Presentation Type: Poster 88
Abstract
Introduction: Despite the long history of Vietnamese people in Michigan, there remains a lack of data on their health, economic, and social conditions. Objective: The Vietnamese Americans Narratives to Transform Anti-Racist Grassroots Empowerment (VANTAGE) project seeks to identify contemporary social determinants of health and health outcomes among this population. Method: VANTAGE is a community-partnered participatory project between researchers at the University of Michigan and the Michigan Chapter of PIVOT, a progressive Vietnamese American organization. VANTAGE is an exploratory sequential mixed methods project. The first phase focused on qualitative data collection to explore the social determinants of health and health outcomes. The second phase (in progress) will involve quantitative data collection of a larger sample. We conducted key informants interviews and focus groups with Vietnamese American leaders from Michigan. Flyers were used to recruit participants from our community partner’s social networks and Vietnamese-led community events. During the one-hour interview, participants were asked questions about their community involvement, perception of challenges and change in their community, and hopes and dreams for the Vietnamese communities. Interviews were qualitative coded and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Our qualitative data consisted of 29 participants from the key informant interviews. The age of the participants ranged from 20 to 83 years old. All participants identified as Asian with one participant identifying as mixed Asian-White. Twenty three participants were Kinh people (ethnic majority of Vietnam), 3 were ethnic minorities of Vietnam, and 3 were Vietnamese-Chinese. The preliminary themes that were most salient during the coding process were “Community in Religion,†“Language barriers,†“Loss connection with culture,†“Immigrants’ pressure to excel,†and “Political Activation.” Vietnamese people in Michigan often relied on religious institutes for their health needs because the religious community serves as a place for Vietnamese people to connect with their culture and to share a common voice.
