Health and Life Study of Koreans, United States, 2016-2018

The Health and Life Study of Koreans (HLSK) was conducted as a part of the study, "Empirical Assessment of Respondent Driven Sampling from Total Survey Error Perspectives" supported by the National Science Foundation. The larger study aimed to examine the operational and inferential properties of respondent driven sampling (RDS). HLSK applied RDS using a web survey, to examine the health of foreign-born Korean-American adults living in Los Angeles County or the State of Michigan. It should be noted that the literature on analysis of RDS data is not fully established, and there is less than clear empirical evidence illustrating the fit of using RDS for population-level inferences. Hence, data users are advised to exercise extreme caution in making population-level inferences.
This study uses existing questions from established surveys such as the American Community Survey (ACS), Kessler survey of psychological distress, and the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). The Main Survey covers topics like socio-demographics, physical and mental health, healthcare utilization, religiosity, political engagement, psychosocial traits, and racial/ethnic identity. The Follow-up Survey and Restricted Data focuses on RDS sampling questions and allows users to examine the relationships between recruiters and their recruits. Additionally, the Follow-up Survey and Restricted Data includes variables that contain sensitive information such as multi-racial identity, citizenship status, and physical health characteristics.