Menu
Karen E. Kim, MD, teacher of medication at the University of Chicago and director for the Center for Asian Health Equity, speaks to WebMD about the health difficulties dealing with older grownups in the Asian American neighborhood.
This interview was modified for length and clearness.
WebMD: The term “Asian American” describes individuals with origins from East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. What are the constraints when we utilize a single classification to explain such a varied group of individuals?
Kim: The issue with the term is that it’s as if we’re all the very same. These are individuals from various nations, speaking various languages with various migration statuses. Some are born in the United States. Some are immigrants. Some are refugees. Some populations speak extremely little English.
Putting everybody together into one homogenous group actually does an injustice since it makes it difficult to comprehend health variations. The concern of whether you’re an immigrant or a refugee has a huge effect on your access to health care and standard assistances. When you’re lumped together, it masks the genuine obstacles dealt with by various neighborhoods.
WebMD: What are a few of the greatest health obstacles dealing with the aging Asian American population?
Kim: Asian individuals are frequently uninformed that there are variations within their own neighborhoods due to the fact that nobody speaks about it. Here are some basic truths about older Asian Americans:
- Asian Americans are the only U.S. population for which cancer is the No. 1 cause of death. We can see actually huge distinctions in the frequency of cervical cancer and cervical cancer screening within the Southeast Asian American neighborhood.
- Among the most significant variations we see is with liver disease B. Half of all liver disease B medical diagnoses in the United States remain in Asians. There’s an extremely high association in between this illness and liver cancer.
- The other thing many individuals do not understand is that there’s a high frequency of diabetes in some Asian populations,