Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: makes up 4.1% of all women in US.

The top five leading cause of death for AAPI women of all ages are heart diseases, cerebrovascular disease, accidents and adverse effects, lung cancer, and breast cancer.(1)

Cancer:

When Asian women migrate to the United States, they lose a protective factor and breast cancer risk increases up to 80%, nearly as high as the rates of Caucasian women. Scientists are still working to identify this protective factor.(2)
   
Native Hawaiian women have a breast cancer incidence rate of more than 1.5 times that of Caucasians.(2)
   
Cancer is the leading cause of death for Asian and Pacific Islander women in the U.S.(3)
   
Only 49% of Asian American women received a pap test in 1998; significantly fewer than all other ethnic or racial groups of women.(4)
   
Asian and Pacific Islander women have higher incidence and mortality rates of stomach and liver cancer than any other ethnic or racial group.(5)
   
Between 1980 and 1999, the cancer death rate in Asian and Pacific Islander women in the US increased by 302%- the highest percentage increase for all US ethnic/racial groups.(3)

Diabetes:

Native Hawaiians are 2.5 times as likely to have diabetes than their white counterparts.(6)
   
Rates of end-stage-renal-disease are increasing at a rate of 11% per year for Asian and Pacific Islanders compared to 6% per year for whites.(7)
   
Asians are almost twice as likely to have end-stage-renal-disease as non-Hispanic whites.(8)
   
An estimated 2.4 percent of AAPI women have diabetes, the fifth leading cause of death among AAPI women between the ages of 45 and 64.(9)
   
When Asians immigrate to the United States, their risk of developing diabetes increases significantly. This is most probably due to a change in lifestyle, diet, and exercise.(10)
   
Gestational diabetes occurs in pregnant women who have no previous history of diabetes but who experience high blood sugar levels during pregnancy. Asian Indian women in American have the highest gestational diabetes rate in the country, with a prevalence rate of 56.1 per 100,000.(11)

Hypertension:

Over 25 percent of women in the AAPI community have high blood cholesterol and 8.4 percent have high blood pressure.12 The prevalence of hypertension is high among Vietnamese American women (14%), Filipino American women (10%), and elderly Chinese American women (34%).(9)

Infectious Disease

The overall risk of becoming infected with tuberculosis in 1996 for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US was almost 15 times that for whites.(13)

Mental Health:

AAPI women over the age of 65 have the highest suicide mortality rate among all racial/ethnic groups.(14)
   
Adolescent girls and college students among the AAPI community have higher rates of depressive symptoms than all other racial/ethnic groups.(15)

Osteoporosis:

Asian women have less knowledge about osteoporosis and lower calcium intakes than Caucasian women.(16)
   
73% of postmenopausal Asian women are below the recommended daily calcium intake.(3)

References:

1. Making the Grade on Women's Health: A National and State-by-State Report Card: National Women's Law Center; August 2000.

2. Ziegler RG, Hoover RN, Pike MC, et al. Migration patterns and breast cancer risk in Asian-American women. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1993;85(22):1819-1827.

3. Eberhardt MS, Ingram DD, Makuc DM. Urban and Rural Health Chartbook. Health, Unites States, 2001. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics; 2001 2001.

4. Collins K, Schoen C, Joseph S, Duchon L, Simantov E, Yellowitz M. Health concerns across a women's lifespan: The commonwealth Fund 1998 Survey of Womens Health. New York, NY: The Commonwealth Fund; May 1999.

5. Ries LAG, Eisner MP, Kosary CL, et al. SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1973-1999, National Cancer Institute. Bethesda, MD,. National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Insititute. Available at: http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1973_1999/. Accessed August 22, 2002.

6. National diabetes statistics fact sheet: general information and national estimates on diabetes in the United States, 2000. National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Available at: http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/diabetes/pubs/dmstats/dmstats.htm#10. Accessed August 22, 2002.

7. Healthy People 2010, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Government Printing Office; November 2000.

8. Karter AJ, Ferrara A, Liu JY, Moffet HH, Ackerson LM, Selby JV. Ethnic disparities in diabetic complications in an insured population. Jama. 2002;287(19):2519-2527.

9. 1986-1990 National Health Interview Survey. Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Public Health Service, National Center for Health Statistics, Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

10. Fuhimoto WY. Diabetes in America: Diabetes in Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. Bethesda, MD: National Diabetes Data Group; 1995.

11. Diabetes During Pregnancy - United States, 1993-1995. MMWR. May 29 1998;47(20):408-414.

12. Tamir A, Cachola S. Hypertension and Other Cardiovascular Risk Factors. Confronting Critical Health Issues of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1994.

13. Fact Sheet: Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders and Lung Disease. American Lung Association. Available at:http://www.lungusa.org/diseases/asianlung_factsheet.html. Accessed August 22, 2002.

14. Health, United States, 1995. Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Public Health Service, National Center for Health Statistics; 1996.

15. Schoen C, Davis K, Collins KS, Greenberg L, Des Roches C, Abrams M. The Commonwealth Fund Survey of the Health of Adolescent Girls. New York, NY: The Commonwealth Fund; November 1997.

16. Liew YL, Mann D, Piterman L. Osteoporosis risks. A comparative study of Asian Australian and Caucasian Australian women. Aust Fam Physician. 2002;31(3):291-293, 297.