1. Neighborhood Ethnic Composition and Self-rated Health Among Chinese and Vietnamese American Immigrants
- Author
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Guan, Alice, Kim-Mozeleski, Jin E, Vyas, Priyanka, Stewart, Susan L, Gildengorin, Ginny, Burke, Nancy J, Ma, Kris, Pham, Amber T, Tan, Judy, Lu, Qian, McPhee, Stephen J, and Tsoh, Janice Y
- Subjects
Epidemiology ,Public Health ,Health Sciences ,Human Society ,Demography ,Human Geography ,Prevention ,Basic Behavioral and Social Science ,Behavioral and Social Science ,Clinical Trials and Supportive Activities ,Health Disparities ,Clinical Research ,2.3 Psychological ,social and economic factors ,Asian ,China ,Emigrants and Immigrants ,Ethnicity ,Health Status ,Humans ,Residence Characteristics ,White People ,Asian American ,Ethnic density ,Neighborhood effects ,Self-rated health ,Public Health and Health Services ,Public health ,Sociology - Abstract
Immigrants tend to live in areas with higher co-ethnic density, and the effect of neighborhood ethnic composition could be particularly salient for health. This study explored associations between neighborhood ethnic composition and self-rated health among Asian immigrants. We analyzed data collected at baseline from 670 Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants enrolled in a lifestyle intervention trial. Residential addresses were geocoded and combined with neighborhood socio-demographic profiles based on census data. We used generalized estimating equations to examine neighborhood ethnic composition and self-rated health. Independent of individual-level factors, living in neighborhoods more densely populated by whites was associated with poor/fair self-rated health. Neighborhood household income and density of participants' own ethnic group were not associated with poor/fair self-rated health. More research is warranted to disentangle reasons why Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants living in white-concentrated neighborhoods reported poorer self-rated health, including investigating effects of discrimination, relative deprivation, and availability of social resources.
- Published
- 2021