Invisible Minority: HIV Prevention Health Policy for the Asian American Population

Abstract

There has been a 72% increase in the Asian American population from approximately 12 million in 2000 to 21 million in 2015. By 2050, there will be 33.4 million Asian Americans living in the United States, making this population the most rapidly growing ethnic group in the country. There is a myth that Asian Americans are a model conservative minority group in terms of sexual behavior and safe sexual practices and are not at risk of sexually transmitted infections including HIV. However, they are the only ethnic group in the United States that had a continuous increase in HIV infection rates from 4.9 per 100,000 in 2011 to 5.5 per 100,000 in 2016. Due to state and national methods of data collection for race and ethnicity with regard to sexually transmitted infection and HIV, the Asian American population's data are often limited. The purpose of this article is to identify the potential historical and political reasons why the Asian American population's HIV or sexual risk has not been fully documented and to propose potential health policy solutions.

Experiences and needs of family support for HIV-infected Asian Americans: A qualitative dyadic analysis

“…Issues related to the care of HIVpositive Asian Americans have been reported (Tang & Chen, 2018). Among different ethnic groups in the U.S., Asian Americans are the only ethnic group that is incurring a continuous increase in HIV infection, with increases from 4.9 per 100,000 people in 2011 to 5.5 per 100,000 people in 2016 (Kim & Aronowitz, 2019). With the advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV has become a chronic condition (Xu et al, 2017), and poses new challenges for people living with HIV (PLHIV), including HIV-related stigma, limited access to care, treatment engagement, ART adherence, symptoms and conditions related to HIV, side effects from HIV and chronic diseases and quality of life (QOL) (Chen et al, 2018;Turan et al, 2017;Xu et al, 2018;Zhu et al, 2019).…”

“…When coping with the HIV-related challenges, family support is usually the first line to provide care (Kohli et al, 2012;Li et al, 2006), especially in collective cultures in which many Asian Americans are immersed (Chen et al, 2018). Although AALHIV encompasses diverse backgrounds and populations, such as Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, many of them devote their lifestyles to the original cultural norms as their families make decisions and offer support, especially health-related issues (Kim & Aronowitz, 2019;Chen et al, 2014).…”

Using Cognitive Interviewing Methodology to Define Acculturation Among Asian American Women

“…Acculturation is an important concept to consider among AA families with adolescence because the intergenerational value transmission related to sexual health communication is taboo in the East Asian and Southeast Asian culture (B. Kim & Aronowitz, 2019;Okazaki, 2002;The Ontario HIV Treatment Network, 2012) affecting communication between the generations (Kao et al, 2007). This difference is accelerated when levels of acculturation between generations is also an issue (Kane et al, 2015).…”

Facilitators and Barriers to HIV Testing, Prevention, and Treatment among Asian and Pacific Islander Americans: A Systematic Exploration

“…5 CDC data indicate that 2% of individuals newly diagnosed with HIV are AAPI. 6 Although total HIV cases and estimated HIV prevalence for AAPI in the United States are relatively low, there are alarming indicators of a rapid increase in HIV infection in this group. The number of AAPI diagnosed with HIV increased by an alarming 36% between 2010 and 2014.…”