Prevalence of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among foreign-born Asian Americans

Objective. The purpose of this paper is to report the prevalence of Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in foreign-born Asian Americans and to compare this with the general Asian Americans from 2010 BRFSS data.    

Methods. In 2013-2014, a total of 600 foreign-born Asian American adults (201 Chinese, 198 Korean, 201 Vietnamese), 18 years of age and older, were drawn from community-based organizations in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan area. The participants completed the HRQOL4 which included: 1) % of fair or poor self-rated health; 2) mean physical unhealthy days; 3) mean mental unhealthy days; and 4) mean days of activity limitation.   

Results. Of the 600 people, 39% reported fair or poor health status which is much higher than national data on Asian Pacific Islander (API) (9.7%), Whites (13.9%), African Americans (22.0%), Hispanic (24.1%), and Native American/Alaska Native (29.0%). This prevalence among Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese were 26.0%, 45.5%, and 44.8%, respectively. The mean amount of physical unhealthy days was higher in our study (3.37) than Asians in national data (2.0, 95% CI: 1.8, 2.3). It was similar in the mean mental unhealthy days (4.17 for our sample vs 2.2 for national data) and activity limitation (1.83 vs 1.2).

Conclusion. The prevalence of 4 measures of HRQOL in our study with a sample of foreign-born Asian Americans was much higher than that of a nationally representative sample in 2010 BRFSS data. This indicates that foreign-born Asian Americans are at much higher risk of poor health than general Asian Americans.