Self-Rated Health Disparities Among Asian Americans: Mediating Roles of Education Level and Household Income

• In Event: 1552 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 1: Physical and Mental Health

Abstract

Despite a sharp demographic increase, Asian Americans are a barely studied racial category in
health disparity research. Using data from the 2016 National Asian American Survey, we
examined self-rated health (SRH) disparities in eight Asian subgroups compared to White,
exploring moderation of nativity and mediation of socioeconomic status (SES). The results show
that no Asian groups fared better than White. Overall, South Asian, Japanese, and Filipino had
the best SRH among all Asian subgroups, followed by Chinese and Koreans, and then by Hmong
and Vietnamese, with Cambodians being the most disadvantaged. Adding nativity to the analyses
changed this general picture such that SRH disadvantages were only manifested among
immigrants for Chinese, Korean, Hmong, and Vietnamese and natives for Filipinos. For most
groups showing SRH disadvantages, SES played some mediating roles with education’s
explanatory power greater than that of income.

Authors

• Zobayer Ahmmad

• Ming Wen, University of Utah

• Kelin Li, California State University