Older Asian-American immigrants are healthier and happier if they are socially active, connected to their families and communities and are able to maintain their cultural values while adapting to western culture, according to a new Rutgers study.
The research appears in the current issue of the journal Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine.
XinQi Dong, director of Rutgers University’s Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and the lead researcher of the Population Study of Chinese Elderly in Chicago (PINE), published 20 articles based primarily on his teams’ examination of the health and wellbeing of Chinese older adults globally. For the study, researchers interviewed more than 3,000 Chinese Americans between 60 and 105 over a two-year period to explore their psychological wellbeing, involvement in their community and neighborhood, quality of life, and acculturation and use of traditional Chinese medicine.
“Aging Asian-Americans are underrepresented in the discussion of health disparity issues in the United States,” said Dong, who guest-edited the special issue focusing on Asian-American health. “This journal compilation is the first substantive step in trying to understand the health of this population.