Education and Health among Asian Americans in the United States

Ying-Ting Wang, University of Texas at Austin

The author used data from the National Latino and Asian American Study (2002-2003) to examine whether a higher level of education is associated with more favorable health among Asian Americans, and also to investigate whether the effect of education on health among Asian American subgroups is different by national origin group. In ordered logistic regression models for all Asian Americans, education is modestly positively associated with physical health and strongly positively associated with mental health. Further, results of ordered logistic regression models by subgroup show that the effect of education on health and its mediators are different across subgroups. The effect of education on health is stronger for Chinese adults than for Filipino adults and Vietnamese adults. The complex pattern of the association between education and health for each subgroup indicates the importance of considering the diverse characteristics of various subgroups in the study of Asian American health.