Prevalence and Determinants of Psychiatric Disorders Among South Asians in America

Lubin, Molly; Khandai, Abhisek Chandan

doi:10.1176/appi.ajp-rj.2016.110203

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 15 publications

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“…This study adds significantly to the limited body of research on suicide among SAAs in the United States. Overall, research data on South Asian Americans is limited as they have frequently been overlooked in mental health literature (Lubin & Khandai, 2016); and have not been mentioned in several important mental health studies based on the National Latino and Asian American Study data set (Cheng et al, 2010; Duldulao et al, 2009; Kuroki & Tilley, 2012). It was, therefore, of great importance to conduct this study to address the lack of research on this growing public health problem.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suicide Among South Asians in the United States: A Growing Public Health Problem

2022

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This research study quantifies and describes suicide among South Asian Americans (SAAs), an emerging population that are underrepresented group in suicide research. The purpose of this study was to examine key characteristics of suicide deaths among SAAs. Data were employed from DuPage County, IL, a county with a large SAA population. Following federal recommendations for disaggregating Asian American data at a granular level, four SAA researchers used name recognition to identify all SAA cases classified as suicide in the DuPage County coroner’s database from 2001 to 2017 ( N = 38). Coroner’s reports were analyzed for contextual details and correlating factors specific to each suicide. Overall, 76.3% of victims were male and 45.0% were married. An analysis of the coroner reports established that 71.1% of decedents showed behavioral disorders that were predisposing risk factors for suicide including mental health diagnoses (57.9%), and a reported prior suicide attempt (21.1%). Among these decedents only 34.2% had received any prior psychiatric care. Significant errors in racial classification of SAAs, lead to a gross undercount of SAA deaths by suicide with 55% of South Asian suicides assigned to a different race or ethnic group. Future studies must increase the scope of this research to other geographic locations with high concentrations of SAAs and examine the risk factors for suicide among SAAs, one of the fastest growing ethnic populations in the U.S.

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