TY - JOUR
T1 - Unmet mental health care needs among Asian Americans 10–11 years after exposure to the world trade center attack
AU - Kung, Winnie W.
AU - Wang, Xiaoran
AU - Liu, Xinhua
AU - Goldmann, Emily
AU - Huang, Debbie
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Grant Number 1U01OH010516-01A1.The study was also supported by the Fordham-New York University Research Fellowship and National Institute of Mental Health training grant, T32 MH013043. The contents of the study are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.
Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Grant Number 1U01OH010516-01A1.The study was also supported by the Fordham-New York University Research Fellowship and National Institute of Mental Health training grant, T32 MH013043. The contents of the study are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2019/4/1
Y1 - 2019/4/1
N2 - This study investigated the prevalence of unmet mental health care needs (UMHCN) and their associated factors among 2344 Asian Americans directly exposed to the World Trade Center (WTC) attack 10–11 years afterwards. Given the pervasive underutilization of mental health services among Asians, their subjective evaluation of unmet needs could provide more nuanced information on disparities of service. We used the WTC Health Registry data and found that 12% of Asian Americans indicated UMHCN: 69% attributing it to attitudinal barriers, 36% to cost barriers, and 29% to access barriers. Among all the factors significantly related to UMHCN in the logistic model, disruption of health insurance in the past year had the largest odds ratio (OR = 2.37, 95% confidence interval: 1.61–3.48), though similar to functional impairment due to mental disorders. Post-9/11 mental health diagnosis, probable mental disorder and ≥14 poor mental health days in the past month were also associated with greater odds of UMHCN, while greater social support was associated with lower odds. Results suggest that continued outreach efforts to provide mental health education to Asian communities to increase knowledge about mental illness and treatment options, reduce stigmatization of mental illness, and offer free mental health services are crucial to address UMHCN.
AB - This study investigated the prevalence of unmet mental health care needs (UMHCN) and their associated factors among 2344 Asian Americans directly exposed to the World Trade Center (WTC) attack 10–11 years afterwards. Given the pervasive underutilization of mental health services among Asians, their subjective evaluation of unmet needs could provide more nuanced information on disparities of service. We used the WTC Health Registry data and found that 12% of Asian Americans indicated UMHCN: 69% attributing it to attitudinal barriers, 36% to cost barriers, and 29% to access barriers. Among all the factors significantly related to UMHCN in the logistic model, disruption of health insurance in the past year had the largest odds ratio (OR = 2.37, 95% confidence interval: 1.61–3.48), though similar to functional impairment due to mental disorders. Post-9/11 mental health diagnosis, probable mental disorder and ≥14 poor mental health days in the past month were also associated with greater odds of UMHCN, while greater social support was associated with lower odds. Results suggest that continued outreach efforts to provide mental health education to Asian communities to increase knowledge about mental illness and treatment options, reduce stigmatization of mental illness, and offer free mental health services are crucial to address UMHCN.
KW - Asian Americans
KW - Disaster
KW - Health insurance
KW - Mental health conditions
KW - Mental health service use
KW - Social support
KW - Stressful life events
KW - Unmet mental health care needs
KW - World trade center attack
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U2 - 10.3390/ijerph16071302
DO - 10.3390/ijerph16071302
M3 - Article
C2 - 30979006
AN - SCOPUS:85064818127
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 16
JO - International journal of environmental research and public health
JF - International journal of environmental research and public health
IS - 7
M1 - 1302
ER -