Be sure to catch Professor Leafia Ye’s recent media features, including full story coverages on the NBC news and Yahoo! News about her new study on Asian Americans’ health.
Professor Ye’s recent study, published in the Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, has uncovered a surprising shift: U.S.-born Asian American older adults are no longer the healthiest aging group in the United States. Professor Leafia Ye, in collaboration with incoming colleague, Professor Hui Zheng, analyzed over 18 million survey responses and found that while all other racial groups have seen steady improvements in disability rates among seniors, rates for U.S.-born Asian adults have stagnated since the mid-2000s.
Speaking with NBC News, Professor Ye said the ‘model minority’ stereotype – a common narrative portraying Asian Americans as a universally successful population – misrepresents the profile of US-born seniors in terms of their physical health.
The study is the first to focus on the disability of US-born Asians, a group that been understudied due to its relatively limited population size. The researchers point to increasing economic inequality within the Asian American population, particularly among low-income individuals, as a key contributor to the stalled health outcomes.
Reporting on Professor Ye’s article, Yahoo! News wrote that the research has broad implications for health equity, and that understanding the needs of US-born Asians will become increasingly important as the population continues to age.
NBC News: U.S.-born Asian Americans no longer the healthiest group among older adults
Yahoo! News: Asian Americans no longer healthiest older adult group, study finds