Psychological Distress and Mental Health Service Utilization Disparities in Disaggregated Asian American Populations, 2006-2018, Under reveiw

Abstract

The recent prevalence of Asian American (AA) adults of disaggregated ethnic groups with mild to severe mental distress receiving professional mental health treatment is largely unknown. Using self-reports from 381,989 respondents in the 2006-2018 National Health Interview Survey, we found that AA ethnic subgroups (Asian Indians [n=4373], Chinese [n=4736], Filipino [n=4912]) had twice the reported severe mental distress (Kessler-6 >12) than non-Hispanic Whites (NHW [n=275,025]): Asian Indian: 2.1%, AOR = 0.51 [0.37, 0.69]. Chinese: 2.2%, AOR = 0.54 [0.42, 0.69], Filipino: 2.9%, AOR = 0.61 [0.49, 0.76], NHW 4.4%). AA ethnic subgroups were half as less likely to visit mental health professionals than non-Hispanic whites (NHW) with matched mental distress levels, after controlling for sociodemographic variables: Asian Indian: AOR = 0.46 [CI: 0.32-,0.66]. Chinese: 0.55 [CI: 0.41- 0.75]. Filipino: 0.56 [0.43, 0.73]). Respondents who were born in the U.S. (1.54 [1.39, 1.74] or college-educated (2.01 [1.83, 2.20]) were more likely to visit a mental health professional than those who were not. Respondents over 65 were less likely to visit a mental health professional than any other age group (0.31 [0.27, 0.35]). Overall, the lower prevalence of mental health service utilization for increasing mental distress among Asian Indian, Chinese, and Filipino American individuals (in comparison to NHWs) may indicate a need for culturally specific mental health education and outreach efforts.

Keywords: Asian American, psychological distress, mental health service utilization, NHIS, disparities

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Recommended citation: Kalpana K. B., Nicholas O., Shozen D., et al. (2021). “Psychological Distress and Mental Health Service Utilization Disparities in Disaggregated Asian American Populations, 2006-2018.” Asian American Journal of Phychology.