Health Disparities Among Filipino Americans
Health Disparities: Focus on the Filipino-American Population in the USA
As a Filipino-American nurse living in Los Angeles, California, this writer has been a witness and an active participant in the multifactorial influences/aspects that affect the Filipino-Americans, in health and illness. Being a grandmother of wonderful grandkids has brought me further exposure to the plight of elderly Filipino-Americans in the United States of America.
The Institute of Medicine’s Report on Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial/Ethical Disparities in Health Care states that cultural bias is one contributor to racial and ethnic minorities having higher rates of poor health outcomes than Whites in the case of disease; even when income, employment status and insurance coverage are controlled. A survey of current literature suggests that as a group, Filipino-Americans are comparatively under-studied vis-à-vis health and health care disparities in the United States. The literature that does cover the subject suggests that Filipino-Americans (as a group) do experience disparities in health and health care.
Javier (2007) noted that on a national level, Filipino-Americans are the second largest Asian/Pacific Islander (API) population. Within this population, Filipino-American youth and adolescents in the US show disparities compared to Anglo and other API groups in regard to gestational diabetes, rates of neonatal mortality and low birth weight, malnutrition in young children, obesity, physical inactivity and fitness, tuberculosis, dental caries and substance abuse.
Within Los Angeles County, Bitler and Shi (2006) analyzed disparities across groups based on health insurance, health care use and health status. While they did not focus on Filipino-Americans as a discrete subpopulation, they noted that differences in the prevalence of chronic health conditions across different immigrant racial and ethnic groups were reduced after controlling for such factors as family income, net
As a Filipino-American nurse living in Los Angeles, California, this writer has been a witness and an active participant in the multifactorial influences/aspects that affect the Filipino-Americans, in health and illness. Being a grandmother of wonderful grandkids has brought me further exposure to the plight of elderly Filipino-Americans in the United States of America.
The Institute of Medicine’s Report on Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial/Ethical Disparities in Health Care states that cultural bias is one contributor to racial and ethnic minorities having higher rates of poor health outcomes than Whites in the case of disease; even when income, employment status and insurance coverage are controlled. A survey of current literature suggests that as a group, Filipino-Americans are comparatively under-studied vis-à-vis health and health care disparities in the United States. The literature that does cover the subject suggests that Filipino-Americans (as a group) do experience disparities in health and health care.
Javier (2007) noted that on a national level, Filipino-Americans are the second largest Asian/Pacific Islander (API) population. Within this population, Filipino-American youth and adolescents in the US show disparities compared to Anglo and other API groups in regard to gestational diabetes, rates of neonatal mortality and low birth weight, malnutrition in young children, obesity, physical inactivity and fitness, tuberculosis, dental caries and substance abuse.
Within Los Angeles County, Bitler and Shi (2006) analyzed disparities across groups based on health insurance, health care use and health status. While they did not focus on Filipino-Americans as a discrete subpopulation, they noted that differences in the prevalence of chronic health conditions across different immigrant racial and ethnic groups were reduced after controlling for such factors as family income, net
References: Ad Hoc Committee. (2005). Ethnic diversity and cultural competence. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacology, 62, 1924-1930. Bitler, M., & Shi, W. (2006). Health insurance health care use and health status in Los Angeles (Policy Brief). San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California. Bonus, R. (2000). Locating Filipino Americans ethnicity and the cultural politics of space. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. CIA World Factbook. The Philippines (Fact Sheet). (n.d.). Retrieved from Central Intelligence Agency website: https://www.cia.gov Culture and health among Filipino and Filipino Americans in central Los Angeles. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.esipa.org/happening/documents/Culture_Health_Report.pdf Javier, J. (2007, April). Filipino child health in the United States: “Do health and health disparities exist?”. Preventing Chronic Disease, 4(2). Periyakoil, V. J., & Dela Cruz, M. T. (2010). Health and health care of Filipino american older adults. In eCampus-Geriatrics. Retrieved from http://www.geriatrics.stanford.edu/ethnomed/filipino