Health status of Asian subgroups in New York City, Kings County Washington, and Los Angeles/Orange Counties in California

Background/Significance: Asian American health information is often under-sampled and aggregated into one group.

Objective/Purpose: To describe and compare frequently used health indicators (e.g. diabetes, high blood pressure, BMI, exercise, smoking) among 6 Asian American subgroups in 4 geographical locations.

Methods: REACH U.S. Risk Factor Survey data targeting Asian American subgroups in New York City (NYC), Los Angeles (LA) and Orange Counties in California, and Kings County in Washington from 2009-2012 yielded approximately 17,310 Asian Americans, which were further divided into Chinese (n=4,028), Filipino (n=2,802), Vietnamese (n=6,478), Korean (n=967), Asian Indian (n=697), and Japanese (n=618). Demographic and health-related variables were run by subgroup, and information will be compared to local health data on aggregated Asian American subgroups.

Results: Unadjusted analyses found important differences between and across subgroups. For example, diabetes rates were highest among Filipinos (20.8%); NYC Filipinos had the lowest prevalence (10.6%) and Orange County Filipinos had the highest prevalence (22.5%). High blood pressure was greatest among Filipinos (50.2%); Kings County Filipinos had the lowest prevalence (30.3%) and NYC Filipinos had the highest prevalence (52.3%). Smoking rates were highest among Koreans (16.4%); Kings County Koreans had the lowest smoking prevalence (9.7%), while NYC and LA County Koreans had the highest smoking prevalence (21.4% and 23.6%). Japanese were most likely to receive sufficient physical activity (63.4%); prevalence did not differ by location. Chinese were most likely to report fair or poor health (32.3%); NYC Chinese had the highest prevalence (35.9%) and Kings County Chinese had the lowest prevalence (13.1%). Demographic differences were also noted; for example, NYC Chinese reported significantly lower education and incomes compared to LA and Kings County Chinese.

Discussion/Conclusions: Findings indicate variations in health outcomes by Asian subgroup as well as geographic location, suggesting that migration-related factors may exist. Final adjusted analyses will be run by subgroup.