Skip to main content

Asian Americans, Socio-Economic Status and Health: Current Findings and Future Concerns

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Handbook of Asian American Health

Abstract

Like other racial groups in the United States, Asian Americans also experience health disparities by socioeconomic status (SES). However, given that many Asian Americans are immigrants and are from diverse countries and cultural backgrounds, the association between SES and health needs to be examined and interpreted within the context of immigration. This chapter will provide a brief overview of SES and health relationship among Asian American as a whole and among various subgroups within Asian Americans. Specifically, this chapter will introduce the unique natures of the SES-health relationship, the mechanisms underlying this relationship, and directions for future research on this relationship as it applies to Asian Americans.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adler, N. E., Epel, E. S., Castellazzo, G., & Ickovics, J. R. (2000). Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy white women. Health Psychology, 19(6), 586–592.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alder, N. E., & Newman, K. (2002). Socioeconomic disparities in health: Pathways and policies. Health Affairs, 12(2), 60–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, J. S., & Bennett, C. E. (2002). The Asian population of 2000, census 2000 brief. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, R. E., Lavarreda, S. A., Ponce, N., Yoon, J., Cummings, J., & Rice, T. (2007). The state of health insurance in California: Findings from the 2005 California health interview survey. Los Angeles: University of California at Los Angeles, Center for health Policy Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Castro, A. B., Gee, G. C., & Takeuchi, D. T. (2008a). Job-related stress and Chronis health conditions among Filipino immigrants. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 10(6), 551–558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Castro, A. B., Gee, G. C., & Takeuchi, D. T. (2008b). Relationship between Job dissatisfaction and physical and psychological health among Filipino immigrants. AAOHN Journal, 56(1), 33–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Castro, A. B., Gee, G. C., & Takeuchi, D. T. (2010). Examining alternative measures of social disadvantages among Asian Americans: The relevance of economic opportunity, subjective social status, and financial strain for health. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 12, 659–671.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diez-Roux, A. V., & Mair, C. (2010). Neighborhoods and health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186, 125–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frisbie, P., Cho, Y., & Hummer, R. (2001). Immigration and the health of Asian and Pacific Islander adults in the Unites States. American Journal of Epidemiology, 153(4), 372–380.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gee, G., Ro, A., Gavin, A., & Takeuchi, D. (2008). Disentangling the effects of racial and weight discrimination on body mass index and obesity among Asian Americans. American Journal of Public Health, 98(3), 493–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghosh, C. (2003). Healthy people 2010 and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders: Defining a baseline of information. American Journal of Public Health, 93(12), 2093–2098.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hong, S. (2009). Neighborhood contexts, mental health, and immigration. PhD. dissertation, School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iceland, J. (1999). Earnings returns to occupational status: Are Asian Americans disadvantaged? Social Science Research, 28, 45–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kagawa-Singer, M., & Pourat, N. (2000). Asian American and Pacific Islander breast and cervical carcinoma screening rates and healthy people 2000 objectives. Cancer, 89(3), 696–705.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaiser Family Foundation & Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum. (2008). Health coverage and access to care among Asian Americans, native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (race, ethnicity and health care fact sheet). Menlo Park: Kaiser Family Foundations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kandula, N. R., Wen, M., Jacobs, E. A., & Lauderdale, D. S. (2009). Association between neighborhood context and smoking prevalence among Asian Americans. American Journal of Public Health, 99(5), 885–892.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kao, D. (2010). Factors associated with ethnic differences in health insurance coverage and type among Asian Americans. Journal of Community Health, 35, 142–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Launderdale, D. S., & Rathouz, P. J. (2000). Body mass index in a US national sample of Asian Americans: Effects of nativity, years since immigration and socioeconomic status. International Journal of Obesity, 24, 1188–1194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LeClere, F. B., Rogers, R. G., & Peters, K. (1998). Neighborhood social context and racial differences in Women’s heart disease mortality. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 39, 91–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leu, J., Yen, I. H., Gansky, S. A., Walton, E., Adler, N. E., & Takeuchi, D. T. (2008). The association between subjective social status and mental health among Asian immigrants: Investigating the influence of age at immigration. Social Science & Medicine, 66(5), 1152–1164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. (1995). Social conditions as fundamental causes of disease. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, (Extra Issue), 80–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, S. M. (2003). Cohort and life-course patterns in the relationship between education and health: A hierarchical approach. Demography, 40(2), 309–331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCracken, M., Olsen, M., Chen, M. S., Jemal, A., Thun, M., Cokkinides, V., et al. (2007). Cancer incidence, mortality, and associated risk factors among Asian Americans of Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese ethnicities. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 57, 190–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mirowsky, J., & Ross, C. E. (2003). Education, social status, and health. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostrove, J. M., Adler, N. E., Kuppermann, M., & Washington, A. E. (2000). Objective and subjective assessments of socioeconomic status and their relationship to self-rated health in an ethnically diverse sample of pregnant women. Health Psychology, 19(6), 613–618.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, W. (1966, January 9). Success story, Japanese American style. The New York Times Magazine, p. 180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reeves, T., & Bennett, C. E. (2004). We the people: Asians in the United States. Census 2000 Special Reports. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, C., & Mirowsky, J. (2009). Neighborhood disorder, subjective alienation, and distress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 50, 49–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waitzman, N. J., & Smith, K. R. (1998). Phantom of the area: Poverty-area residence and mortality in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 88(6), 973–976.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walton, E., Takeuchi, D. T., Herting, J. R., & Alegria, M. (2009). Does place of education matter? Contextualizing the education and health status association among Asian Americans. Biodemography and Social Biology, 55(1), 30–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu, S. M., Huang, Z. J., & Singh, G. K. (2010). Health status and health services access and utilization among Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, south Asian, and Vietnamese children in California. American Journal of Public Health, 100(5), 823–830.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, W., McCubbin, H., McCubbin, L., Chen, Q., Foley, S., Strom, I., et al. (2010). Education and self-rated health: An individual and neighborhood level analysis of Asian Americans, Hawaiians, and Caucasians in Hawaii. Social Science & Medicine, 70, 561–569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, W., & Ta, V. M. (2009). Social connections, immigration-related factors, and self-rated physical and mental health among Asian Americans. Social Science & Medicine, 68, 2104–2112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei Zhang Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Zhang, W. (2013). Asian Americans, Socio-Economic Status and Health: Current Findings and Future Concerns. In: Yoo, G., Le, MN., Oda, A. (eds) Handbook of Asian American Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2227-3_13

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics