Comparing selected measures of health outcomes and health-seeking behaviors in Chinese, Cambodian, and Vietnamese communities of Chicago: results from local health surveys.

We describe how local community organizations partnered to conduct a survey in the Chinese, Cambodian, and Vietnamese populations of Chicago to compare health outcomes and assess progress toward Healthy People 2010 goals. Interviews were conducted with 380 randomly selected Chinese adults through door-to-door sampling, and with 250 Cambodian adults and 150 Vietnamese adults through respondent-driven sampling. Data on 14 key health outcomes are described for this analysis. The three surveyed communities were generally poorer, less educated, more often foreign-born, and had less English proficiency than Asians nationally. There were few significant variations among the three populations, but there were notable differences in the burden of tuberculosis, obesity, diabetes, and arthritis. Insurance coverage and cancer-screening utilization were also significantly lower than for US Asians. Health information about Chinese, Cambodian, and Vietnamese populations in Chicago are available for the first time and serve as baseline data for community interventions. Findings highlight important health concerns for these populations and have implications for funders and policy makers in allocating resources, setting health priorities, and addressing health disparities.