Implementing National Survey Data Collection in the Field: The Experiences of Local Asian Community Organizational Partners at the Frontline

Across the United States, a lack of trust persists within AA communities about the data collection and reporting of Asian American (AA) health status by government agencies and academic researchers. Asian Americans, particularly the majority who have limited English proficiency, continue to be hard to reach and excluded from data collection, resulting in data that do not adequately represent and reflect the actual Asian American community profile and the health issues and priorities they face. To ensure trust building and legitimacy in the AA community, the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) and local Asian community-based organizational (CBO) partners together took major steps forward to strengthen connections with each other, cultivate trust in communities about research participation, and standardize culturally and linguistically appropriate practices for data collection. The local CBO partners of NHANES will present their field experiences to address the issues of community mistrust of field researchers and facilitate community legitimacy of NHANES in support of their recruitment and data collection efforts to build the evidence base for Asian American health. We will discuss the different on-the-ground activities conducted by the local organizations and the facilitators and challenges of the local organizations to support the recruitment and implementation of NHANES data collection in the field. Finally, we will provide community recommendations on the lessons learned and most effective community-based strategies to support AA community participation in data and research.