Health of Asian Adults: United States, 2010–2014

About 5% of the U.S. population, or 15 million persons, are Asian. The Asian population is heterogeneous, characterized by a variety of languages, cultures, socioeconomic statuses, and health issues.

A new NCHS report looks at the health status, multiple chronic conditions, serious psychological distress, and limitations on work or social participation for all non-Hispanic Asian adults and the six largest Asian subgroups: Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean. Estimates for all U.S. adults are also shown.

Findings:

• Non-Hispanic Asian adults were less likely than all U.S. adults to be in fair or poor health, have multiple chronic conditions, have serious psychological distress in the past 30 days, or be limited in work or social participation.
• Chinese adults reported better health on all five measures in this report compared with all U.S. adults.
• Chinese adults (11.3%) were less likely than Filipino (22.3%), Asian Indian (16.9%), Japanese (16.8%), or Vietnamese (15.6%) adults to have multiple chronic conditions.
• Chinese (1.8%) and Asian Indian (1.5%) adults were about one-half as likely as Japanese adults (4.1%) to have a work limitation.
• Chinese (2.4%), Japanese (2.2%), and Vietnamese (2.4%) adults were about one-half as likely as Korean adults (4.6%) to be limited in social participation.