Home Health Care to Asian Americans: a Systematic Review

Abstract

Objective Despite being the fastest growing minority group in the USA, Asian Americans are among the least studied ones, particularly in the home and community-based services settings. This study aimed to review and synthesize extant evidence on Asian American’s access, utilization, and outcomes of home health care. Methods This is a systematic review study. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed and CINAHL as well as hand search. Each study was screened, reviewed, and evaluated for quality by at least two reviewers independently. Results Twelve articles were determined eligible and included for review. Asian Americans were less likely to be discharged to home health care following hospitalization. At admission to home health care, Asian Americans had a high rate of inappropriate medication issues (28%) and they also had poorer functional status compared to White Americans. Asian Americans were also reported with less improvement in functional status at the end of home health care; however, there were some inconsistencies in the evidence on Asian Americans’ utilization of formal/skilled home health care. Quality evaluation indicated that findings from some studies were limited by small sample size, single site/home health agency, analytic approaches, and other methodologic limitations. Conclusions Asian Americans often experience inequities in home health care access, utilization, and outcomes. Multilevel factors may contribute to such inequities, including structural racism. Robust research using population-based data and advanced methodology is needed to better understand home health care to Asian Americans.

Developing an Evidence-Based Patient Education Guide on Pain Management for Asian Patients on Hospice

“…In a systemic review of home healthcare for Asian Americans, small sample sizes and single-site studies limited the quality evaluations of the studies (Ma et al, 2023). Future research into community-based home health and hospice services within the Asian patient population with large samples and multi-site studies would support a more comprehensive understanding of the population's needs.…”