AAPI Nexus: Policy, Practice and Community

The rewards of providing care to an aging family member are numerous, but psychological, social, physical, and economic stressors are often also present. Moreover, community programs and services designed to provide education, resources, and respite to caregivers and therapeutic benefit to seniors, Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) caregivers may still confront significant cultural and structural barriers to service use. This paper is based on a highly successful community-wide outreach and education program conducted in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles, California in 2003 targeting current and future Korean American caregivers. It employed tenets of French and Raven’s original model of social power and interpersonal influence. We present details of how the authors addressed cultural and structural barriers to enhance access to services, as well as recommendations for future research in this area.

Health studies on older Asian Americans based on national and statewide representative data are scarce. This study examined subgroup differences in demographic, socioeconomic and general health status, health conditions, and access to health care services among five groups of Asian Americans aged 60 or older (Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese), using data from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey. Significant differences in demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health status, chronic conditions, and coverage and use of health care services were found in the five groups, indicating the complexity, diversity, and heterogeneity of older Asian American populations. Practice and research implications are discussed.

We surveyed a convenience sample of 255 Asian Indian Americans (AIAs) aged 18-81 years assessing perceptions of dementia etiology, help-seeking, and treatment, and knowledge of symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In response to a vignette describing the early stages of AD, participants indicated a substantial willingness to seek help. Most participants knew that memory loss was the key symptom of dementia, yet most knowledge items were correctly answered by fewer than half of the sample. Participants who had more knowledge of AD were more likely than those with less knowledge of AD to state that they would seek help for an elderly relative showing symptoms of dementia. Relative to other psychosocial factors, loneliness was highly rated as an etiological factor and keeping mentally active was highly rated as a treatment. This study is the first to document dementia beliefs among AIAs, illustrating the need for culturally-tailored dementia education and care for the AIA population.

Ensuring the economic well-being of elderly represents a critical issue for social policy. The impacts of financial instability reach beyond an individual’s overall well-being and their family relationships. To date, little is known about the economic status of elderly Native Hawaiians Pacific Islanders (NHOPI). This paper presents baseline information on the poverty status of NHOPI elders and how individual and household characteristics impact their economic well-being. Using bivariate and multivariate analysis the results show that the risks of poverty varies markedly across different Pacific Islander subgroups but that all elder uniformly benefit from coresidence within an extend family household.