War Trauma and Strength: A Qualitative Study of Participants in the Vietnamese Insights into Cognitive Aging Program.

OBJECTIVES

Vietnamese Americans are the fourth largest Asian subgroup in the United States, but little qualitative work has been done on their war and migration experiences. In this study, we delineated the war-related traumas and strength in participants of the Vietnamese Insights into Cognitive Aging Program (VIP).

METHODS

VIP is a longitudinal study of 548 Vietnamese Americans aged 65+ years living in Northern California. During Visit 1, a semi-structured interview was conducted on participants' life and experiences in Vietnam and immigration to the United States. Using data at one of the recruitment sites, interviews of participants having the highest total self-reported traumas were transcribed in Vietnamese (n = 43) for coding and analysis following a thematic approach.

RESULTS

Participants were 73.2 years old on average (SD = 5.48). Most were male (67.4%) and had attempted to escape Vietnam by boat at least once (67%). Two major themes were found: (1) experiences of adversity and suffering, which included subthemes on tough life experiences during the war, imprisonment and hard life after the war, escaping by boat and living in the refugee camps, witnessing or hearing about others' traumas during the war and escape, and experiences of loss, and (2) personal fortitude and gratitude, which included subthemes on fortitude and endurance, personal skills to cope and navigate, and perceived "luck and blessings."

DISCUSSION: Results from this study revealed various traumas and aspects of strength. These findings can contribute to future VIP research on cognitive aging and inform research and practice on health disparities.