Even when Asian Americans are included within the study population, the numbers gathered from those reports should still be approached with caution. The same researchers add in their report that: “Caution should be exercised when using these numbers since Asian representation in these samples is typically small, leaving estimates with wide confidence bounds. As a result, the power to detect significant differences in mental health and service use is limited. The importance of including an overrepresentation of Asians in future MA samples of behavioral health and healthcare studies cannot be overstated, particularly for a population that will triple in MA in the next two decades.� As established previously, mental illness is a heavily stigmatized topic within many AA populations, which could lead to underreporting or even unwillingness to answer questions regarding mental health truthfully among participants that are included in these studies. The NLAAS reported a 65.60% response rate amongst their Asian American participants. This response rate was one of the lowest compared to three other surveys studying mental health in other minority populations within the United States (Yang & Benson, 2016). These factors are important to keep in mind when viewing statistics regarding the mental health of the AA population of Boston.
STATISTICS Most of the data on the Boston Asian American population was found within larger reports on public health within the Boston area. Many reports did not specify whether the Asian American population included Pacific Islander populations. For that reason, all data reported will only refer to Asian Americans due to our inability to confirm whether Pacific Islander populations were surveyed. In addition, other data found regarding Asian American populations were not specific to Boston but instead referred to Asian American populations across the entire state of Massachusetts. In a report conducted by the Boston Public Health Commission, it was found that Asian patients had the lowest mental health hospitalization from 2008-2012, with about 2 hospitalizations per 1,000 residents. In comparison, all other ethnic groups had above 5 hospitalizations per 1,000 residents. The report was not able to provide statistics on suicide rates among the Asian American population due to the lack of a large enough sample size. Among Boston high school students in 2013, the Commission found that 19.8% of Asian students reported experiencing persistent sadness. This was the lowest rate among all the ethnic groups surveyed. Among adults, 9.1% of Asian adults reported experiencing persistent sadness (as compared to 10.8% of white adults, 13.1% of black adults, and 16.7% of Latino adults) and 10.7% of Asian adults reported experiencing persistent anxiety (as compared to 23.1% of white adults, 19.2% of black adults, and 7.7% of Latino adults). Another report conducted within the Boston region by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health from 2002-2007 found that 7.2% of Asian adults reported 15+ days of poor mental health within the past month and 3.3% reported 15+ days of feeling sad, blue or depressed within the past month.
50 | THE 2018 REPORT ON ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICANS IN BOSTON