Cultural factors in preventive care: Asian-Americans.
The Asian-American population in the United States continues to grow rapidly. In 1990, there were 6.6 million Asian Americans in this country, representing 2.7% of the population. The 2000 Census showed the Asian population has grown to 10.1 million, now 3.6% of the population. A breakdown of the major ethnic groups revealed: Chinese 24%, Filipino 18%, Asian-Indians 16%, Vietnamese 11%, Koreans 10%, and Japanese 8%. According to the 1990 Census, 66% of the Asian-American population was foreign-born, 40% reported that they do not speak English 'very-well', and 25% were in linguistically isolated households. Due to the differences in their ethnic background, language barriers, cultural beliefs, socioeconomic status and distrust in Western medicine, providing care to this population constitutes a formidable challenge for primary care clinicians.
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Clement
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Jefferson Medical Care, 121 N. 10th Street, 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA. clement.au@mail.tju.edu
D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002423:Cause of Death; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009017:Morbidity; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States