In several states their life expectancy is 89, which is pretty unreal and is about 7-8 years higher than most OECD nations. The gap between Asian American life expectancy in many states vs OECD nations is as big as the gap between OECD nations and lower-middle income nations like Vietnam.
So does anyone know why? What is the makeup of asian americans? Are they Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian? Or what exactly?
Is it because many are first or second generation immigrants of very intelligent citizens, which means they have more income & education (which increases life expectancy)? But that alone can’t be it, Chinese people have been in California since at least the 19th century.
Obesity rates are lower in Asian Americans, but they are also low in Japan & South Korea. South Korea is a wealthy country with low obesity rates that has a LE of about 81.
Yes, “Asian Americans are less likely to live in poverty (12.8%), more likely to be college graduates or hold graduate degrees (50%), and more likely to be employed in management, business, science, and arts occupations (48.5%) compared with the total U.S. population (15.9%, 28.5%, 36.0%, respectively).” But agreed: higher income and education level is not the whole story
Life style. While many Asian Americans have completely acculturated to a Standard American Diet, many are more likely to have diets at least somewhat influenced by cultural heritage … less heavy on the meat and highly processed foods and more vegetables.
Other cultural. Controlling for SES Asian Americans are less likely to be murdered. Every murder (or drug or young traffic accident death, and even more so infant mortality) impacts total life expectancy disproportionately. Social structures regarding the old which are more common in many Asian sub-cultures may also be protective in the 80s and beyond.
Genetic factors. Clearly there are genes (only a few of which are identified) associated with longevity given all else being the same.
Compared to the rest of the USA, Asian Americans are more likely to become and remain married, to be raised in two-parent households, to get a college education, to hold a full time job, to be religious, and to be active in their communities. All these things are associated with good health and long life.
“If it did not kill my parents, why quit?” said Tong, who declined to give his full last name. He has used tobacco for more than 45 years.
It is the time of the year to make New Year’s resolutions. Many people are determined to live a healthier lifestyle. Although health-related issues are among people’s goals, to quit smoking may not be a priority for many Asian American smokers.
“My grandma smoked, my dad smokes, and people around me smoke,” said Tong. “Especially back in the days [when] there was no TV, no entertainment. People smoke everywhere [in China].” In 2008, the American Lung Association claimed that 9.9 percent of Asian Americans smoked, compared to 22.0 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 21.3 percent of non-Hispanic Blacks. However, these studies may not be accurate.
“In specific Asian American communities, it’s way over that rate. Many studies use phone surveys as a measuring tool, and they are only done in English and Spanish. They don’t desegregate that data — not [showing a different rate for] youths, not reflective of different communities. It’s very misleading,” said Ishihara.
The fact they smoke so much — and the stereotype of Chinese is of heavy smoking; and of Chinese-Americans that they’ve always been into various kinds of smoking pleasures from opium dens to cigarettes to vaping [ both the first and last being Chinese inventions ] — may well have contributed to an inner calm :
internal peace is far more of a health protector than the fearful neuroticism common to most American culture. And anti-smoking.
So the answer to the cite about relatively low smoking rates across the broad group of American-Asian is: 1) an anecdote 2) but maybe not in all sub-groups! (And of course longer life expectancy may also be not true across all subgroups.) 3) “But the stereotype!”?
In answer to the potential bias using phone surveys here is a house to house survey. Indeed they came up with a slightly higher number - 14.9% current smokers rather than the 13.5% previously reported. In the same year broad American prevalence was 20.9% however. The broad group smokes less than the broad American group, whatever differences in subpopulations there may be. Of course what matters more is not current rates but rates of those who would be current 80 to 90 year olds when they were younger adults, say 60 years ago. Of note that era (1940s through 1960s) was a peak of smoking in the United States impacted mightily by free cigarettes distributed to American soldiers in WW2. Not so for Asian Americans.
Interesting bit particularly in regard to the impact of smoking here.
One wonders what fraction of the oldest Asian Americans are immigrants versus native born. My suspicion is that most of that generation are immigrants, more than many other ethnic groups, and that this “immigrant paradox” may apply as one contributing factor.
The rest of the “immigrant paradox” may be explainable by a selection bias: successfully emigrating to the United States often selects against the frail and selects for fitter individuals.
The results are for life expectancy at birth. The infant mortality rate for Asian-Americans is the lowest for any ethnic group in the U.S., and may account for the entire difference. Do we have anyone here who can calculate the adjustment for infant mortality?
In general, religion is negatively correlated with all positive metrics. The only “positive” metric I’ve ever seen associated with (Christian) religiosity is a lower suicide rate - though I’d debate whether that’s a positive.
This Pew Poll is reported rather strangely, reporting which percentage of a religion was of what ethnicity rather than what the ethnicity’s religious breakdown is, but you can work back to the original numbers from their data.
The total number of Asians by religion is:
// Choosing 0.5% for anything less than 1% since there is no further data to go by
Buddhist 0.33 * 262 = 86
Catholic 0.03 * 7113 = 213
Evangelical 0.02 * 8479 = 170
Hindu 0.91 * 197 = 179
Black Protestant 0.005 * 1913 = 10
Jehovah's Witness 0.005 * 242 = 1
Jewish 0.02 * 838 = 17
Protestant 0.01 * 5995 = 60
Mormon 0.01 * 656 = 7
Muslim 0.28 * 232 = 65
Orthodox 0.03 * 184 = 6
Non-Religious 0.05 * 7427 = 371
Total 1185
So the total number of irreligious Asians is 371/1185 = 31.3%.
Only about 1% of kids born will die before age 20, so the impact on life expectancy should be minimal, even with a zero percent child mortality rate I’d guess that would only add six months or so to life expectancy.
On the subject of actuarial tables, even for the SS tables which are for people born in 2011,only 21% of men and 33% of women survive to 89, but 89 is life expectancy at birth for Asians in many us states.
