An Examination of the Health Trajectories of Asian Immigrants

Immigrant health trajectories are of great interest to health researchers, as they provide insight into the health consequences of integration over the immigrant lifecourse. The acculturation theory, which is the most common interpretation of health trajectories, posits worsening health with longer duration in the United States due to the adoption of “westernized” lifestyles and breakdown of ethnic ties. This paper provides a critical review of the literature on Asian immigrant health trajectories and presents the results of multivariate analyses between duration and physical health outcomes in four nationally-representative datasets: the Current Population Survey (CPS), the National Asian American and Latino Survey (NLAAS), the American Community Survey (ACS) and National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). We find substantial heterogeneity in the effect of years in the United States on physical health across health measures, age, gender and ethnic groups. Worsening health with duration is seen among younger ages and women. Among outcomes, it is most seen with BMI. We also find that health behaviors do not fully mediate the relationship between duration and health, which provides an interesting contrast to the acculturation theory. It appears that Asian immigrants do not uniformly adopt “westernized” lifestyles that are reflected in their health status. We end our talk with an alternative reading of health trajectories; if duration is understood to represent processes of integration, health trajectories can instead be affected by the accumulation of risks and resources over the lifecourse that arise as a consequence of integrating into a stratified society.