title: Research challenges and lessons learned from conducting community-based research with the Hmong community.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Conducting research with underserved communities with little exposure to research presents a number of challenges and opportunities. Our study used a community-based approach to better understand factors that influence breast and cervical cancer screening among Hmong women.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This article shares lessons learned during the process of developing and conducting qualitative research with a Hmong community with limited experience with research.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted 17 key informant and 84 in-depth interviews with Hmong women and men. Research team discussions, insights from Hmong research team members, input from our Community Advisory Committee, and project documents were sources of information about the process of conducting research in this community.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Lessons learned concern including a cultural insider as an investigator; building community partnerships and support; establishing and working with a community advisory committee; hiring and training bilingual, bicultural staff; and using culturally appropriate materials and methods in a small, kinship-based community. We used multiple strategies to ensure that this study was conducted in a culturally appropriate manner.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The lessons learned from our experiences can provide guidance to researchers on methodological and practical issues in conducting research with the Hmong and can inform future research with the Hmong and other similar underserved populations.
authors.affiliation: The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA kue.2@osu.edu.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kue
authors.affiliation: Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Sheryl
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thorburn
authors.affiliation: Keon Consultants, LLC, Corvallis, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Karen Levy
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Keon
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research / Q000379:methods; D003469:Culture; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007812:Laos / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D009922:Oregon; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis
keywords: Asian; breast cancer; cervical cancer; qualitative research