Vietnamese Adult-Child and Spousal Caregivers of Older Adults in Houston, Texas: First Study Results from the Vietnamese Aging and Care Survey (VACS)

Background and Purpose. Since the Fall of Saigon in 1975, Vietnamese refugees migrated to the United States in many waves after having experienced physical and emotional violence. Traumatic escape from their home country left many Vietnamese people scars from the war. Due to their low socioeconomic status and limited English proficiency, research on this population is scarce. Especially studies on the health needs of Vietnamese older adults have not been undertaken because they tend not to trust government due to their past experience, and none has been done in Houston, Texas. Vietnamese are the largest Asian subethnic group and one of the fastest growing immigrant populations in Houston. The purpose of this study was to explore the sociodemographic and health condition of this newly-arrived, understudied population: Vietnamese older adults and their family caregivers.

Methods. Modeled after the Hispanic Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly, I developed the Vietnamese Aging and Care Survey (VACS) and collected data on 88 Vietnamese older adults (65 years and older) and 26 family caregivers (N=114) as a pilot study, and this paper focused on the caregivers. The VACS caregiver data consist of adult-child and spousal caregivers. Data included caregivers’ demographics, global and psychological health, caregiving roles, length of caregiving, stress and burden, positive aspect of caregiving, social support, social service use, and adult-child’s sense of filial responsibility. I used descriptive statistics to describe caregivers’ sociodemographic characteristics and ran t-tests to examine the association between adult-child and spousal caregivers’ sociodemographic characteristics and psychological health.

Results. Adult-child caregivers (n = 17) were aged between 20 and 59 (M = 42.7), college-educated (53%), married (41%), working (100%), female (53%) in good health (53%) while spousal caregivers (n = 9) were between 61 and 81 years old (M = 69.1), high school-educated (89%), retired (67%), married (100%), female (78%) in fair health (56%). Statistically significant differences were found between adult-child and spousal caregivers’ education (p = 0.01) and overall health (p = 0.03). While adult-child received more help from others (82%), spousal caregivers had only few (33%). Both caregivers hardly used any social services, but hired their family members and Vietnamese-speaking professionals utilizing in-home care services through their loved one’s Medicaid. Both adult-child and spousal caregivers’ psychological health levels such as depression, caregiver burden, stress, and loneliness were similarly low. Their positive aspects of caregiving, family relationships and social support were equally high because of their cohabitating household.

Conclusions and Implications. Vietnamese caregivers are trying to meet their loved ones’ health needs in a new country while learning a new language under new social systems. Living in a multi-generation household and hiring their family members as paid-caregivers while others work outside the home may alleviate their financial burden and provide psychological support among themselves. These findings have implications for social workers to develop culturally-sensitive approaches to encourage caregivers to utilize available social services to further ease their transition and caregiving experiences.