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The Impact of Structural Inequities on Older Asian Americans During COVID-19

Structural racism manifests as an historical and continued invisibility of Asian Americans, whose experiences of disparities and diverse needs are omitted in research, data, and policy. During the pandemic, this invisibility intersects with rising anti-Asian violence and other persistent structural...

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Autores principales: Ma, Kris Pui Kwan, Bacong, Adrian Matias, Kwon, Simona C., Yi, Stella S., Ðoàn, Lan N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8417937/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34490181
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.690014
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author Ma, Kris Pui Kwan
Bacong, Adrian Matias
Kwon, Simona C.
Yi, Stella S.
Ðoàn, Lan N.
author_facet Ma, Kris Pui Kwan
Bacong, Adrian Matias
Kwon, Simona C.
Yi, Stella S.
Ðoàn, Lan N.
author_sort Ma, Kris Pui Kwan
collection PubMed
description Structural racism manifests as an historical and continued invisibility of Asian Americans, whose experiences of disparities and diverse needs are omitted in research, data, and policy. During the pandemic, this invisibility intersects with rising anti-Asian violence and other persistent structural inequities that contribute to higher COVID-19 mortality in older Asian Americans compared to non-Hispanic whites. This perspective describes how structural inequities in social determinants of health—namely immigration, language and telehealth access, and economic conditions—lead to increased COVID-19 mortality and barriers to care among older Asian Americans. Specifically, we discuss how the historically racialized immigration system has patterned older Asian immigrant subpopulations into working in frontline essential occupations with high COVID-19 exposure. The threat of “public charge” rule has also prevented Asian immigrants from receiving eligible public assistance including COVID-19 testing and vaccination programs. We highlight the language diversity among older Asian Americans and how language access remains unaddressed in clinical and non-clinical services and creates barriers to routine and COVID-19 related care, particularly in geographic regions with small Asian American populations. We discuss the economic insecurity of older Asian immigrants and how co-residence in multigenerational homes has exposed them to greater risk of coronavirus transmission. Using an intersectionality-informed approach to address structural inequities, we recommend the disaggregation of racial/ethnic data, meaningful inclusion of older Asian Americans in research and policy, and equitable investment in community and multi-sectoral partnerships to improve health and wellbeing of older Asian Americans.
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spelling pubmed-84179372021-09-05 The Impact of Structural Inequities on Older Asian Americans During COVID-19 Ma, Kris Pui Kwan Bacong, Adrian Matias Kwon, Simona C. Yi, Stella S. Ðoàn, Lan N. Front Public Health Public Health Structural racism manifests as an historical and continued invisibility of Asian Americans, whose experiences of disparities and diverse needs are omitted in research, data, and policy. During the pandemic, this invisibility intersects with rising anti-Asian violence and other persistent structural inequities that contribute to higher COVID-19 mortality in older Asian Americans compared to non-Hispanic whites. This perspective describes how structural inequities in social determinants of health—namely immigration, language and telehealth access, and economic conditions—lead to increased COVID-19 mortality and barriers to care among older Asian Americans. Specifically, we discuss how the historically racialized immigration system has patterned older Asian immigrant subpopulations into working in frontline essential occupations with high COVID-19 exposure. The threat of “public charge” rule has also prevented Asian immigrants from receiving eligible public assistance including COVID-19 testing and vaccination programs. We highlight the language diversity among older Asian Americans and how language access remains unaddressed in clinical and non-clinical services and creates barriers to routine and COVID-19 related care, particularly in geographic regions with small Asian American populations. We discuss the economic insecurity of older Asian immigrants and how co-residence in multigenerational homes has exposed them to greater risk of coronavirus transmission. Using an intersectionality-informed approach to address structural inequities, we recommend the disaggregation of racial/ethnic data, meaningful inclusion of older Asian Americans in research and policy, and equitable investment in community and multi-sectoral partnerships to improve health and wellbeing of older Asian Americans. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8417937/ /pubmed/34490181 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.690014 Text en Copyright © 2021 Ma, Bacong, Kwon, Yi and Ðoàn. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Ma, Kris Pui Kwan
Bacong, Adrian Matias
Kwon, Simona C.
Yi, Stella S.
Ðoàn, Lan N.
The Impact of Structural Inequities on Older Asian Americans During COVID-19
title The Impact of Structural Inequities on Older Asian Americans During COVID-19
title_full The Impact of Structural Inequities on Older Asian Americans During COVID-19
title_fullStr The Impact of Structural Inequities on Older Asian Americans During COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed The Impact of Structural Inequities on Older Asian Americans During COVID-19
title_short The Impact of Structural Inequities on Older Asian Americans During COVID-19
title_sort impact of structural inequities on older asian americans during covid-19
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8417937/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34490181
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.690014
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