For decades, Asian Americans have been widely regarded as the healthiest racial demographic among older adults in the United States, often regarded as a model minority exemplifying longevity and low disability rates. However, a groundbreaking study published recently in the Journal of Gerontology reveals a significant shift in these health trends. According to the data, U.S.-born Asian older adults no longer hold this health advantage, with non-Hispanic white Americans now reporting the lowest rates of disability in this age group. This unexpected reversal highlights complex socioeconomic factors driving health disparities that have yet to be fully understood.
This extensive study analyzed health and income data collected from more than 18 million respondents in the American Community Survey spanning the years 2005 to 2022. The researchers defined disability as having chronic physical or mental health conditions that impair self-care and independent living. Their comprehensive statistical analysis revealed that while almost every other racial group, including non-Hispanic white, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous populations, experienced a reduction in disability prevalence, the rate among U.S.-born Asian older adults has stagnated. This trend suggests an urgent need to rethink assumptions about health privilege within the Asian American community.
One of the more striking findings is the disparity in income trends that appear to underlie these health outcomes. From 2005 to 2022, income levels increased for most racial groups, which typically corresponded to improved health and declining disability rates. However, among older U.S.-born Asian Americans, the proportion living on low income actually rose. This correlation between socioeconomic status and health outcomes indicates that income inequality is a critical, yet often overlooked, factor influencing this population’s wellness. The data challenges the prevailing “model minority” stereotype by revealing an overlooked vulnerability tied to economic hardships.
Lead author Leafia Ye, a sociology assistant professor at the University of Toronto, emphasizes how cultural assumptions about Asian Americans have clouded an accurate understanding of their health experiences. “The narrative that Asians are uniformly a high-achieving, healthy minority misrepresents the nuanced reality faced by many U.S.-born Asians,” states Ye. She explains that these findings call for a more nuanced approach to public health research and policy, especially when it comes to older Asian adults who have been historically underrepresented in studies that inform healthcare intervention programs.
The divergence in health outcomes also reflects immigration dynamics. Older foreign-born Asian Americans have long been considered positively selected for health—they tend to have better health profiles precisely because immigrants with poor health are less likely to endure the stresses of moving to a new country. This “healthy immigrant effect” contributed to Asian Americans’ previously superior health status in U.S. aging populations. However, the new focus on U.S.-born Asian adults aged 50 and older reveals a dramatically different and concerning pattern, suggesting generational shifts in health that merit deeper investigation.
Further complicating this picture is the unique increase in disability rates among low socioeconomic status Asian Americans, a trend not observed in other racial groups. While disability rates declined among poor white, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous groups, low-income Asians actually experienced worsening health outcomes. This disproportionate burden points to structural barriers and systemic issues within health care access, social supports, and economic mobility programs that may disproportionately affect this demographic. Without targeted research and intervention, this group could face increasing health challenges in the coming decades.
Analysis over the study period highlights concrete shifts: between 2005 and 2009, only 5.5 percent of U.S.-born Asian Americans reported difficulties with tasks essential to independent living, such as grocery shopping. This was significantly lower than white adults at 7 percent and far below 14 percent for Black older adults. By 2020 to 2022, disability rates had decreased to under 5 percent for white older adults and 10 percent for Black older adults. In stark contrast, the disability rate among Asian Americans remained unchanged at 5.5 percent, illustrating an alarming plateau in progress.
Notably, the researchers initially hypothesized that recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying surge in anti-Asian racism might explain the stagnation in health improvements among Asian Americans. Yet the longitudinal data tells a different story. The plateau and worsening among low-income Asians have their roots in trends that predate the pandemic by many years, signaling deeper, systemic issues beyond episodic social stressors.
The study’s emphasis on the interplay between economic factors and health outcomes sheds new light on the health disparities landscape in the United States. Income inequality, a growing national concern, appears to be a key driver undermining health gains for aging U.S.-born Asians. The findings suggest that without addressing economic determinants of health, conventional healthcare strategies targeting race and ethnicity alone will be insufficient to close this emerging health gap.
Moreover, these revelations underscore the importance of expanding public health surveillance and research to accurately capture the health trajectories of populations often obscured by aggregate data. Aggregated Asian data can mask significant heterogeneity within subgroups. The researchers advocate for more granular data collection and studies that focus on U.S.-born Asians to detect trends that otherwise remain invisible but have profound implications for healthcare policy and resource allocation.
This study is among the largest to examine health trends for aging U.S.-born Asians, analyzing data at a scale unmatched in prior research. The sophisticated use of statistical methods to parse such vast population data sets demonstrates a new frontier in health disparities research – one that combines demography, sociology, and public health to unravel complex social determinants of health. Such interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to developing culturally responsive and economically informed health interventions.
In summary, this emerging evidence dismantles the longstanding perception of Asian Americans as uniformly healthy aged individuals and reveals a pressing need to examine socioeconomic dimensions of health more deeply. With the U.S.-born Asian older adult population expected to grow rapidly in coming years, understanding and addressing these disparities is critical. Policymakers, healthcare providers, and researchers must collectively engage with this challenge to ensure equitable health outcomes across all racial and ethnic groups in the United States.
Subject of Research: People
Article Title: U.S.-born Older Asians’ Diminishing Health Advantage Relative to Other Racial Groups, 2005-2022
News Publication Date: 15-May-2025
Web References: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaf088
References: Journal of Gerontology (DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbaf088)
Keywords: Asian Americans, Disability rates, Aging population, Socioeconomic status, Health disparities, U.S.-born Asians, Income inequality, Public health, American Community Survey
