Disability rates of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans living in the US

Objectives: To compare disability rates for Chinese, Japanese and Koreans (CJKs) living in the US with those of non-Hispanic Whites. While these ethnic groups share similar cultural backgrounds, they have different immigrant histories and economic backgrounds in their countries of origin. Methods: The American Community Survey for 2005 was used to extract data for non-Hispanic Whites and persons from China, Japan, and Korea. Logistic regressions were used to estimate OR of a person having a disability adjusted for age, sex, nativity, education, income, and other personal characteristics. Disability is defined as any limitation in sensory, physical, mental, or work-related functioning that lasts 6 months or longer. Results: Crude disability rates for Whites were 15.4%, while those for CJKs were 7.4%, 10.8 %, and 7.5%, respectively. The adjusted OR shows that CJKs were more than 35% less likely to have any disability than Whites. Age-specific rates suggest that Whites had rates that are consistently higher than those for CJKs in all age groups except for >=75. Nativity effect was either reversed or not significant for CJKs, when each group was analyzed separately. The difference between Whites and CJKs was about 1.4% for those aged < 25 and grew larger until it hits 3.6% for those aged 65-74. Conclusion: Substantial differences between non-Hispanic Whites and persons from China, Japan and Korea exist in adjusted disability rates. Age-specific rates suggest that significant differences were present early in life and persisted through all age groups <75.