Ye Leafia Zi, Zheng Hui
Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2025 Jun 10;80(7). doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbaf088.
Previous studies have shown that Asian Americans have lower disability and mortality rates than other racial/ethnic groups, indicating a more favorable health profile. This phenomenon is often attributed to the large proportion of Asians being foreign-born and positively selected. However, the health status of U.S.-born older Asians and its trend over time remain unclear.
We used data from the American Community Survey to describe changes in age-adjusted disability prevalence among native-born older Asians relative to other racial/ethnic groups since 2005.
Although U.S.-born Asians aged 50 and older had lower disability prevalence than other racial/ethnic groups in 2005-09, their prevalence stagnated over time, while other groups experienced reductions. Consequently, the health advantage of U.S.-born older Asians diminished between 2005 and 2022. A key explanation for this phenomenon is a relative decline in socioeconomic status (SES) among older Asians compared to Whites over time. Asians experienced stagnation in high school attainment and a clear decline in the proportion of the population above the bottom income quintile, while Whites (and most others) experienced improvement in both SES measures. Furthermore, U.S.-born older Asians with low SES experienced an increase in disability, a trend not observed in any other racial or nativity group. We found suggestive evidence that declining community and family support among native-born older Asians may have also eroded their health advantage.
The "model minority" stereotype increasingly misrepresents the well-being of U.S.-born older Asians, a population that requires further research attention.
先前的研究表明，亚裔美国人的残疾率和死亡率低于其他种族/族裔群体，这表明他们的健康状况更为良好。这种现象通常归因于很大一部分亚洲人是外国出生且经过了积极筛选。然而，在美国出生的老年亚裔的健康状况及其随时间的变化趋势仍不明确。
我们使用了美国社区调查的数据来描述自2005年以来，相对于其他种族/族裔群体，美国本土出生的老年亚裔中年龄调整后的残疾患病率的变化情况。
尽管在2005 - 2009年期间，50岁及以上在美国出生的亚裔的残疾患病率低于其他种族/族裔群体，但随着时间的推移，他们的患病率停滞不前，而其他群体的患病率则有所下降。因此，在2005年至2022年期间，在美国出生的老年亚裔的健康优势逐渐减弱。这一现象的一个关键解释是，随着时间的推移，老年亚裔的社会经济地位（SES）相对于白人有所下降。亚裔在高中教育程度方面停滞不前，收入处于最低五分位数以上的人口比例明显下降，而白人（以及大多数其他群体）在这两项社会经济指标上都有所改善。此外，社会经济地位较低的在美国出生的老年亚裔的残疾率有所上升，这一趋势在其他任何种族或出生地群体中都未观察到。我们发现有迹象表明，在美国出生的老年亚裔中，社区和家庭支持的减少可能也削弱了他们的健康优势。
“模范少数族裔”的刻板印象越来越不能准确反映在美国出生的老年亚裔的福祉，这一群体需要进一步的研究关注。
