Invisible in the data: Broad ‘Asian American’ category obscures health disparities
Blending together the highly diverse pool of Asian Americans in widely used metrics obscures vast differences in their health.
They have roots in 50 countries that cover more than half of the globe’s surface. They make up more than 60% of the world’s population. They speak more than 100 different languages. Yet in medical research and public health in the United States, people with Asian ancestry are almost always grouped into a single racial category.
Nearly 25 million Americans — from Hmong to Laotians, and Koreans to Indonesians — have been given the same label by the U.S. government despite coming from vastly different cultural, linguistic, and genetic backgrounds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, academic and pharmaceutical researchers, and disease advocacy groups all use the broad category of Asian in studies and to make funding and policy decisions.
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