IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v8y2018i2p24-d142797.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Determinants of Physical Self-Rated Health among Asian Americans; Comparison of Six Ethnic Groups

Author

Listed:
  • Shervin Assari

    (Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health (CRECH), School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
    Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA)

  • Anurima Kumar

    (School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA)

Abstract

Background: A growing literature has revealed ethnic group differences in determinants and meanings of their self-rated health (SRH). Aim: To explore ethnic variations in the effects of socioeconomic determinants on poor physical SRH of Asians in the United States. Methods: Data came from the National Asian American Survey (NAAS), 2008, with 4977 non-U.S. born Asian Americans, including Asian Indian ( n = 1150), Chinese ( n = 1350), Filipino ( n = 603), Japanese ( n = 541), Korean ( n = 614), and Vietnamese ( n = 719) Americans. Demographic factors (age and gender), socioeconomic status (SES; education, employment, income, and marital status), and physical SRH were measured. Ethnic-specific logistic regressions were applied for data analysis where physical SRH was the outcome and demographic and social determinants were predictors. Results: According to logistic regressions, no social determinant was consistently associated with physical SRH across all ethnic groups. Being married was associated with better physical SRH in Asian Indians and worse SRH in the Filipino group. Education was associated with better SRH in Asian Indian, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans. High income was associated with better SRH in Chinese, Filipino, and Vietnamese Americans. Employment was associated with better SRH in Filipino Americans. Conclusion: Social determinants of physical SRH vary across ethnic groups of Asian Americans. Different ethnic groups are differently vulnerable to various social determinants of health. Application of single item SRH measures may be a source of bias in studies of health with ethnically diverse populations. Policy makers should be aware that the same change in social determinants may not result in similar change in the health of ethnic groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Shervin Assari & Anurima Kumar, 2018. "Social Determinants of Physical Self-Rated Health among Asian Americans; Comparison of Six Ethnic Groups," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-9, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:2:p:24-:d:142797
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/2/24/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/2/24/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kawada, T., 2014. "Question context, ethnic difference, and self-rated health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(1), pages 1-3.
    2. Chittleborough, C.R. & Taylor, A.W. & Baum, F.E. & Hiller, J.E., 2009. "Monitoring inequities in self-rated health over the life course in population surveillance systems," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(4), pages 680-689.
    3. Kenneth F. Ferraro & Jessica A. Kelley-Moore, 2001. "Self-Rated Health and Mortality Among Black and White Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 56(4), pages 195-205.
    4. Megan K. Beckett & Marc N. Elliott, 2002. "Does the Association Between Marital Status and Health Vary by Sex, Race, and Ethnicity?," Working Papers DRU-2869-NIA, RAND Corporation.
    5. Katz, S.J. & Kessler, R.C. & Frank, R.G. & Leaf, P. & Elizabeth, L. & Edlund, M., 1997. "The use of outpatient mental health services in the United States and Ontario: The impact of mental morbidity and perceived need for care," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(7), pages 1136-1143.
    6. Fernandez-Olano, C. & Hidalgo, J.D. Lopez-Torres & Cerda-Diaz, R. & Requena-Gallego, M. & Sanchez-Castano, C. & Urbistondo-Cascales, L. & Otero-Puime, A., 2006. "Factors associated with health care utilization by the elderly in a public health care system," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 131-139, January.
    7. Megan Beckett & Marc N. Elliott, 2002. "Does the Association Between Marital Status and Health Vary by Sex, Race, and Ethnicity?," Working Papers 02-08, RAND Corporation.
    8. Lee Lillard & Constantijn Panis, 1996. "Marital status and mortality: The role of health," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 33(3), pages 313-327, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar & Sahizer Samuk, 2021. "Health status and willingness-to-pay estimates for the benefits of improved recycling rates: evidence from Great Britain," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-28, January.
    2. Lixin Cai & Guyonne Kalb, 2004. "Health Status and Labour Force Participation: Evidence from the HILDA Data," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2004n04, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    3. Ozdamar, Oznur & Giovanis, Eleftherios, 2014. "Valuing the Effects of Air and Noise Pollution on Health Status in Turkey," MPRA Paper 59992, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Öznur ÖZDAMAR & Eleftherios GIOVANIS, 2017. "The Impact of Air and Noise Pollution on Health Status in Turkey: A Willingness to Pay Approach," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 25(32).
    5. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar, 2016. "The impact of air pollution on health problems in Britain," International Journal of Sustainable Economy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 8(2), pages 163-186.
    6. Lixin Cai & Guyonne Kalb, 2006. "Health status and labour force participation: evidence from Australia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(3), pages 241-261, March.
    7. Giovanis, Eleftherios & Ozdamar, Oznur, 2014. "Relationship between health status and recycling rates: Evidence from Great Britain," MPRA Paper 64405, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. G. Miller & Yuriy Pylypchuk, 2014. "Marital Status, Spousal Characteristics, and the Use of Preventive Care," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 323-338, September.
    9. Robert G. Wood & Brian Goesling & Sarah Avellar, "undated". "The Effects of Marriage on Health: A Synthesis of Recent Research Evidence," Mathematica Policy Research Reports d69bf47785bc4154a4e184aa5, Mathematica Policy Research.
    10. Hoeck, Sarah & François, Guido & Van der Heyden, Johan & Geerts, Joanna & Van Hal, Guido, 2011. "Healthcare utilisation among the Belgian elderly in relation to their socio-economic status," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 174-182, February.
    11. Lei Jin & Nicholas Chrisatakis, 2009. "Investigating the mechanism of marital mortality reduction: The transition to widowhood and quality of health care," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(3), pages 605-625, August.
    12. Abbring, Jaap H. & van den Berg, Gerard J., 2003. "A Simple Procedure for the Evaluation of Treatment Effects on Duration Variables," IZA Discussion Papers 810, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Reto Schumacher & Sarah Vilpert, 2011. "Gender differences in social mortality differentials in Switzerland (1990-2005)," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(8), pages 285-310.
    14. Averett, Susan L. & Sikora, Asia & Argys, Laura M., 2008. "For better or worse: Relationship status and body mass index," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 330-349, December.
    15. Han, Kyu-Tae & Park, Eun-Cheol & Kim, Sun Jung, 2016. "Unmet healthcare needs and community health center utilization among the low-income population based on a nationwide community health survey," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(6), pages 630-637.
    16. Daniele Vignoli & Anna Matysiak & Marta Styrc & Valentina Tocchioni, 2018. "The positive impact of women’s employment on divorce: Context, selection, or anticipation?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(37), pages 1059-1110.
    17. Hafifa Siddiq & Babak Najand, 2022. "Immigration Status, Socioeconomic Status, and Self-Rated Health in Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-12, November.
    18. Shervin Assari & Mohsen Bazargan, 2019. "Baseline Obesity Increases 25-Year Risk of Mortality due to Cerebrovascular Disease: Role of Race," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-15, October.
    19. R.K. Chadda & Vivek Agarwal & Megha Chandra Singh & Deepak Raheja, 2001. "Help Seeking Behaviour of Psychiatric Patients Before Seeking Care At a Mental Hospital," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 47(4), pages 71-78, December.
    20. Espinosa, Javier & Evans, William N., 2008. "Heightened mortality after the death of a spouse: Marriage protection or marriage selection?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1326-1342, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:2:p:24-:d:142797. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.