Suicide rates among Asian Americans have been relatively low, but suicide rates have risen sharply in recent years among younger generations of this broad demographic.
A new study reports that suicide rates among young Asian Americans (ages 15-24) vary widely among different ethnic subgroups, with some groups’ very low suicide rates compared to others’ This suggests that it may be hiding an alarmingly high suicide rate.
The findings, published today in JAMA Pediatrics, suggest that programs aimed at reducing suicide rates among young Asian Americans should strive to meet the needs of these high-risk groups. , said Dr. Anthony L. Bui, the study’s lead author and acting assistant. Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.
“When designing policies and programs to address this issue, we need to consider which communities should be targeted and appropriate for mental health interventions, taking into account culture, language, local resources, etc. ” Bui said. He is also a researcher at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
Bui et al. divided U.S. youth ages 15 to 19 and youth ages 20 to 24 into five ethnic groups: Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, and “all other.” analyzed data from 2018 to 2021 on suicide rates.
The “all other” category included ethnic groups that did not have enough cases for separate statistical analyses. Among them are Bangladeshis, Bhutanese, Burmese, Cambodians, Hmong, Indonesians, Japanese, Laotians, Malaysians, Mongolians, Nepalese, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Taiwanese, and Thais. It was included.
Among young people, Asian Americans overall had a lower suicide rate than non-Asian Americans, with 9.17 deaths per 100,000 compared to 10.77. Among Asian American youth, suicide rates were lowest for Indians at 6.91, Vietnamese at 10.57, and highest for the “all other” group at 13.37. The suicide rate for young people in China was 7.59, 7.64 for young people in the Philippines, and 8.44 for young people in South Korea.
Among young people, the suicide rate for Asian Americans was 14.18 per 100,000, also much lower than the 18.32 suicide rate for non-Asian Americans. Asian American youth had the lowest suicide rate among Chinese, at 9.24. The percentage was again highest for Vietnamese youth, at 17.66, compared to 16.79 for youth in the “all others” group. Their rate was almost double the rate seen among young people in China.
“The key thing about this study is that we don’t lump data about Asian Americans into one big category, because that would hide underlying disparities,” Bui said. said. “By disaggregating these data, we can better understand what’s going on in our communities and which interventions will really help.”
Written by Michael McCarthy
