Mental Health among Asian and non-Hispanic White workers in California

Purpose: Asian Americans represent rapidly increasing labor force in the United States. Although considered to be at high work-related health risks, little research has been done to identify specific work-related factors (company size, weekly working hour, and time at main job) that are predictive of mental health status in the Asian populations. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between work-related factors and mental health among Asian and non-Hispanic white workers in California. Methods: We used data from the 2010/2011 California Health Interview Survey for this analysis. The study sample was restricted to non-Hispanic white (n=15,100) and Asian-Chinese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese-adults (n=2,233) who had worked for at least an hour a week. We used multiple regression to examine work-related factors in relation to psychological distress controlling for sociodemographic factors and physical health status. Results: Most Asian subgroups except Korean had lower psychological distress than non-Hispanic white workers. Korean workers had higher psychological distress than Chinese workers, whereas Vietnamese workers had lower psychological distress than Chinese. None of the work-related factors significantly correlated with psychological distress among Asian workers while the work-related factors significantly correlated with psychological distress among White workers. Conclusions: We observed different levels of psychological distress across different race/ethnicity. Korean American workers were particularly vulnerable for more distress than other Asian subgroups. Further investigation is warranted to see how salient factors (such as acculturation) affect mental health of Asian American workers.