Asian-American adults are the healthiest, both physically and psychologically, in the United States, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of the group, which included Chinese, Filipinos, Asian Indians, Japanese, Vietnamese and Koreans, Chinese “reported better health on all five measures in this report compared with all U.S. adults.”
The measures include health status, multiple chronic conditions, serious psychological distress in the last month and limitations in work or social participation.
Vietnamese adults were the most likely to report fair or poor health status, but only 17 percent reported so. Still, that was higher than the national average of 12 percent.
Filipinos reported the most chronic conditions, while Japanese experienced the most work limitations, and Koreans were the most likely to report social participation limitations.
For the results, the CDC looked at data collected from nearly 166,000 adults between 2010 and 2014 as part of the National Health Interview Survey.
According to The Huffington Post, some researchers caution about reading too much into the data, saying the survey was skewed toward English speakers. Census data show many Asian-Americans don’t consider themselves proficient in English.
A survey that left out non-English speakers would likely miss those who were older and possibly in worse health.
About 15 million Asian-Americans live in the U.S., representing about 5 percent of the population.
