There are significant concerns about providing healthcare to those in AANHPI communities due to historical and systemic barriers to healthcare access. Some of the barriers that continue to affect the communities include:
Addressing these concerns requires a comprehensive approach that includes improving access to care, native language support, addressing cultural considerations, and investing in community-based programs that promote health equity.
Chen et al. (2024) looked at Asian American immigrants that are living with HIV and how language barriers negatively impact their access to HIV-related services. Further complications include not adhering to treatment plans and increased HIV-stigma (Chen et al., 2024).
Many Asian communities integrate traditional complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) practices into their health routines. Yi et al. (2024) reviewed data from the 2015 Asian American Quality of Life survey and was able to identify predictors of when Asian Americans would integrate TCAM practices into their health routines. They called for ensuring that healthcare providers adopt an “ethnically sensitive approach when addressing the healthcare needs of diverse Asian American populations” (Yi et al., 2024). South Asian youths are also turning towards complementary and alternative medicine for less serious health issues (Khosla et al., 2024).
According to KFF, a non-partisan organization focused on health policy, a majority of AANHPI people in the US are citizens who are parents or living in multigenerational households and there are wide ranges of socioeconomic measures among “nonelderly Asian and NHOPI subgroups,” which looked at higher education obtainment and if there was at least one full-time worker living in the household (Pillai et al., 2023).
Asian cultures tend to lean more towards prioritizing “interdependence and achieving greater good for the group” (Qin et al., 2024); integrating family-centered decision making can help address these differences.
There is a common stereotype of the AANHPI community as being perpetually foreigners, as "outsiders", regardless of where they come from or how long their families have been here. This concept of exclusion from one's land (Huynh et al., 2011) affects a person's self-image.
Not only that, but this stereotype can influence a person's ability to receive health care. Providers may assume that their AANHPI patients have low English literacy levels or specific cultural practices that conflict with allopathic medicine, and not provide adequate support.
In the following subpages, we’ll be providing you with resources catering to the key heath disparities in the AANHPI Community:
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