Acculturation and health status among Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese Americans

Background: Self-rated health status has been increasingly recognized as an important indicator of chronic disease and predictor of mortality.

Objective: To examine an association between acculturation and self-rated health status among Asian Americans.

Methods: We used baseline data on 876 Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese American adults recruited for a health education program in Maryland. Multiple acculturation indicators were used: Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (SL-ASIA), proportion of life in US, proportion of education in US, and language preference. Health status was measured by single questions. We used multiple logistic regression.

Results: 44.6% of Vietnamese, 43.9% of Korean, and 26.8% of Chinese participants reported fair or poor health with significant difference among three groups. After adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic variables, those who were more acculturated (SL-ASIA > median) were 60% less likely to report fair or poor health compared to less acculturated (SL-ASIA ≤ median) (OR=0.4, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.28-0.57), and those whose proportion of life in the U.S. was greater than median or who received any education in the U.S. were 48% and 33% less likely to report fair or poor health than those whose proportion of life in the U. S. was less than or equal to median or who did not receive any education in the U.S. (OR=0.52, 95% CI: 0.38-0.73; OR=0.67, 95% CI: 0.46-0.97, respectively). Language preference was not significantly associated with health status.

Conclusion: Our findings using multiple acculturation indicators strongly suggest more acculturated Asians may have better self-rated health than less acculturated Asians.