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Health and Healthcare Needs of Koreans in San Francisco Bay Area: The Korean Needs Assessment (KoNA) Project

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Abstract

Korean Americans (KA) face a significant burden of health disparities. However, limited data are available on their health needs. This health needs assessment includes a community-based sample of 342 KA from the San Francisco Bay Area. The assessment investigated participants’ sociodemographic characteristics, health status, and their healthcare needs. Nearly half of the survey participants rated their health as fair or poor, > 30% did not have a usual place for healthcare, and chronic conditions were prevalent. Limited English Proficiency (LEP) was significantly associated with low self-rated health and having no usual source of care, after adjusting for other sociodemographic factors. Older, LEP KA faced the highest health and health care burden. In addition, females were less likely to be physically active. Males were more likely to smoke. The findings provide guidance in identifying major KA health needs and supports local programming and policy development for KA.

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Data Availability

The datasets during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the participants for providing data; and the Korean Community Center of the East Bay for their funding. We thank Health Research for Action, UC Berkeley School of Public Health for providing in-kind support and space for the project.

Funding

This project was funded by a grant from the Korean Community Center of the East Bay. Student activities were funded by UC Berkeley Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program, and Health Research for Action provided in-kind support and space for the project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Research for Action, UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Susan L. Ivey, Eugenia Yoo, Nhayoung Hwang, Denny D. Cha & Winston Tseng

  2. Center for Human Nutrition, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Hyunju Kim

  3. Korean Community Center of the East Bay, San Leandro, CA, USA

    June Lee

Authors
  1. Susan L. Ivey
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  2. Hyunju Kim
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  3. Eugenia Yoo
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  4. Nhayoung Hwang
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  5. Denny D. Cha
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  6. June Lee
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  7. Winston Tseng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hyunju Kim.

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Conflict of interest

All authors have indicated they have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose.

Informed Consent

UC Berkeley Institutional Review Board (Committee for Protection of Human Subjects) designated the project as not human subjects research.

Research Involving Human Participants

Protocols and instruments were reviewed and deemed program evaluation/needs assessment and “not human subjects research” by the UC Berkeley Institutional Review Board (Committee for Protection of Human Subjects) since they would be used for the improvement of program quality in our local area.

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Ivey, S.L., Kim, H., Yoo, E. et al. Health and Healthcare Needs of Koreans in San Francisco Bay Area: The Korean Needs Assessment (KoNA) Project. J Immigrant Minority Health 21, 1043–1051 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-0823-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-0823-5

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