In addition to the recent launches of our national reports: the 2022 AANHPI Roadmap for Data Equity in Federal Agencies and the 2022 State of AANHPIs in the United States, AAPI Data is excited to announce the launch of The Health, Mental Health, and Social Service Needs of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in California. As with our other reports, the full-text of this new demographic report can be found at aapidata.com/reports.
This report quantifies and highlights the gaps in access to health, mental health, and social services by Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AA and NHPI) in the state of California. It sets out to quantify these gaps using estimates from the pooled 2019-2020 California Health Interview Survey supplemented by 2020 5-year American Community Survey Public Use Microdata.
The report contains data, charts, and analysis on the following topics:
- Demographics by Region
- Housing and Poverty
- Public Program Utilization
- Mental Health
- Health Behaviors
- Reproductive Health and Non-Consensual Sex
- Food Insecurity
- Child Care and Pre-School
- Caregiving
It concludes with recommendations for action to help address inequities in access to health, mental health, and social services for AAs and NHPIs.
General Highlights
Poverty
While poverty rates for Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders were among the lowest of the major race and ethnic groups, Mongolian and Hmong Americans had the highest poverty rates in California, while Indian and Filipino Americans had the lowest rates. Among NHPI groups, Marshallese had the highest poverty rates and Fijians had the lowest.
Public Program Utilization
NHPI communities were less likely to enroll in Medi–Cal than other major race and ethnic groups. Among detailed Asian groups, Japanese, South Asian, and Other Asian Americans who meet income eligibility requirements were also less likely to be enrolled in Medi–Cal.
Healthcare Access
Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Americans were less likely than White Americans to have a usual source of care, have visited a doctor in the last 12 months, and be able to schedule a doctor’s appointment in a timely manner.
Mental Health
Among those who reported needing help for emotional, mental, or addiction problems in the past year, Asian Americans along with American Indian, Alaskan Native, Black and Hispanic Americans were significantly less likely to receive needed mental, emotional, or addiction treatment than White Americans. Disaggregated data for Asian Americans show similar challenges in accessing mental health services, especially for Vietnamese Americans.
Reproductive Health
Asian American teens were significantly less likely to have received counseling
about birth control in the past year.
To read the full text of the report, visit aapidata.com/reports. To access the social media shareables for the report, see here.