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Barriers to and Strategies for Recruiting Korean Americans for Community-Partnered Health Promotion Research

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Abstract

While increasing numbers of researchers are targeting ethnic minorities in order to address their health disparities, the unique health needs of Korean Americans are not well known to the mainstream community, and only relatively few systematic research studies have been conducted in this “hard-to reach” population. The purpose of this paper is to describe the barriers to recruiting participants for health promotion research and to identify facilitators in the community that can contribute to this effort. We have analyzed data pertaining to the 14 studies we have conducted since 1998, which included a total sample of about 2,400 Korean Americans. We describe in detail the unique recruitment challenges that we have faced in regard to the culture, language, sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, such as gender and age, and other community level barriers. Multiple strategies at different levels (individual and community) to address these issues are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

Our studies have been supported by grants from the Faculty Research Fund, Geriatric Nursing-Medicine Research Fund, and OPD-GCRC grant, Johns Hopkins University, National Institute of Nursing Research (R15 NR05315, P30 NR008995), Maryland Cigarette Restitution Fund, American Legacy Foundation, Urban Health Institute, Maryland Home and Community Care Foundation, Sigma Theta Tau-Nu Beta, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R01 HS013160 and R03 HS013779). We are grateful to all Korean Americans who participated in our studies and to graduate research assistants Moonju L. Ko, Hyun J. Park, Hwayun Lee, and Gina Pistulka.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, 525 N. Wolfe St., Baltimore, Maryland, MD, 21205-2110, USA

    Hae-Ra Han & Miyong T. Kim

  2. Department of Nursing, Chonbuk University, Chonbuk, South Korea

    Jeonghee Kang

  3. Korean Resource Center, Ellicott City, Maryland, USA

    Kim B. Kim

  4. Department of Sociology, Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Jai P. Ryu

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  1. Hae-Ra Han
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  2. Jeonghee Kang
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  5. Miyong T. Kim
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Correspondence to Hae-Ra Han.

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Han, HR., Kang, J., Kim, K.B. et al. Barriers to and Strategies for Recruiting Korean Americans for Community-Partnered Health Promotion Research. J Immigrant Health 9, 137–146 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-006-9022-x

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