A Multi-Dimensional Assessment of the Health of Working Age Vietnamese

Mark VanLandingham, Tulane University

Research comparing health outcomes between immigrants living in the U.S. and nationals living in sending countries is extensive, but this literature has not focused on the Vietnamese, a group that constitutes one of the major immigrant flows in recent decades. A second shortcoming of this literature is that measures of health are generally ad hoc and very limited in scope. This paper will assess the health of 240 working-age Vietnamese nationals on 8 dimensions of health status as measured by the SF-36. The SF-36 is supplemented by modules that assess access to care and occupational health, and physical measures of BMI, waist-hip ratio, blood-pressure, and lung capacity. A comparison sample of 240 Vietnamese immigrants is underway.