University Health Promotion Report: Asian American Population Study

This report focuses on health promotion strategies for Asian Americans, a population facing significant health disparities. It identifies key risk factors, including chronic conditions like coronary heart disease and nutritional challenges, and emphasizes the influence of cultural and socioeconomic factors. The report highlights primary health prevention strategies based on the Ottawa Charter, such as injury prevention and promoting health literacy, as crucial for improving health outcomes. It also emphasizes the importance of cultural competence in healthcare delivery, advocating for the use of the Leininger cultural care model to address language barriers, communication issues, and socioeconomic disparities. The report suggests that implementing culturally sensitive care plans, considering diverse cultural practices and beliefs, can effectively improve health equity within the Asian American community.

Running head: HEALTH PROMOTION
HEALTH PROMOTION
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The ethnic minority group selected for this paper is Asian American group who are
considered as the Americans of the Asian heritage. Based on the U.S. Census Bureau, this
group refers to the panethnic group which consist of diverse population with the ancestral
origins from South Asia, Southeast Asia or East Asia. Approximately 17.3 million of Asian
Americans are present in the United States presently, and the overall population is estimated
to increase to 43.2 million or 10% of the overall US population by 2050 (U.S Department of
health and human services, 2019). Large number of Asian Americans are under increased
prevalence of obtaining different chronic condition and different risk factors that includes
HIV/AIDs, Hepatitis B, liver disease, smoking and tuberculosis. In 2017, the condition of
tuberculosis was 35 times more prevalent in this group as compared to the general population
with the incidence rate of 17.7% among Asian American group and 0.5% in the general US
population (Katigbak et al., 2016). Currently large number of Asian American are suffering
from coronary heart disease with the prevalence rate of 4.9%. The race and ethnicity affects
the health condition of this group as they exhibit the extreme health and socioeconomic
indices. The emotion, attitude and behaviour of this group is different from the general US
population and is therefore responsible for reducing the probability of achieving successful
treatment and health intervention.
The health disparity among the population of Asian American is huge as they are
considered as the heterogeneous population which consist of different immigration history
and cultural background (Hastings et al., 2015). The health disparity among this group is
viewed by the lens of ethnicity and race which generally affects the mental and physical
health of the people. The factors that lead to such health disparity are socio-economic status,
language, ethnicity or race, geographic location and disability. The health disparity that is
present among the Asian American population are cancer particularly breast cancer, coronary
valve and artery disease, diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer’s disease and psychological illness.

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These group of people also face major nutritional challenges that might be responsible
for the chronic illness and poor lifestyle. Large number of Asian American population
consume excess amount of salt and sodium as compared to other groups. The nutritional
challenge that exist in this group is to reduce the intake of excess sodium and manage the diet
of the population by increasing their awareness of nutrient-rich foods which includes chicken,
eggs, curd, cheese, fish, rice and soy-based mixtures. The low intake of calcium is another
nutrition related challenge that affects large number of Asian American women and lead to
osteoporosis or osteopenia.
The major barriers that result in high health disparity among the Asian American are
language or culture, health literacy, health insurance and immigrant status barriers. Absence
of language proficiency is considered as the major barrier among the Asian American
population that result in major health disparity as the families are unable to communicate and
share their apprehensions (Jang & Kim, 2019). Poor heath literacy is also accountable for the
complex health status of this population, as they have very limited health literacy thus
resulting in poor health outcome. Health insurance is the socio-political barriers that inhabit
the population to access the facility of health insurance with increased unemployment rate
(Aaby et al., 2017). The poor socio-economic status is also considered as the major barrier
among the population.
Primary health promotion prevention strategy is considered as the best and effective
strategy for constructing the care plan and fulfilling the need of the minority group. Primary
health prevention consist of the preventive measures that is communicate to the population
prior the onset of any illness or progression of disease. As the considered minority group
lacks any awareness and knowledge of the possible risk factors that would lead to the
progression of chronic health condition, it is very crucial to highlight the possible health
preventive strategy to reduce the onset of any illness. According to World Health

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Organization (2019), Ottawa Charter can be used for promoting the healthcare strategy to
reduce the overall burden of disease the primary health promotion strategy includes injury
prevention, promoting and stimulating early health literacy, endorsing physical activity,
Promoting family and child nutrition, injury prevention, SIDS education and prevention and
developing and increasing awareness regarding the smoking cessations programs. Hence,
primary health prevention program is beneficial for educating and incraseimng the awareness
of the Asian American to reduce the health complexity and improve their living lifestyle.
Before creating a care plan, there are different cultural practices or beliefs that must
be considered in order to improve the health disparity among the Asian American population
(Garneau & Pepin, 2015)The aim of constructing the care plan is to deliver effective cultural
competent health environment to such minority population that consist of improving the
language barriers and communication among the population, motivating the people to involve
in different cross- cultural activity, increasing the awareness among the population for
effective management of the risk factors and updating the skills and knowledge of the
population to develop an effective health equality among the population. There are different
cultural theory models that will support this group of people to receive a culturally competent
surrounding.
The model that will best suit these group of people is Madeleine Leininger cultural
care model that is included under the transcultural model will be appropriate for supporting
the Asian American group that will focus on the comparative cultural beliefs, values and
practices of the ethnic population and will aim to provide universal and cultural-specific
nursing care and practice. Through this model, the individuals belonging to the Asian
American group will receive favourable human condition that will aim to enhance their
health outcome in a culturally appropriate way (Silva et al., 2018). This theory has a
culturalogical evaluation that focus on providing comprehensive and holistic care to the

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population by addressing different factors such as language and communication,
socioeconomic status, age, disability and lifestyle. Hence, it is evident that Leininger cultural
care model is best suited for supporting Asian American population.

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References:
Aaby, A., Friis, K., Christensen, B., Rowlands, G., & Maindal, H. T. (2017). Health literacy
is associated with health behaviour and self-reported health: A large population-based
study in individuals with cardiovascular disease. European journal of preventive
cardiology, 24(17), 1880-1888.
Garneau, A. B., & Pepin, J. (2015). Cultural competence: A constructivist definition. Journal
of Transcultural Nursing, 26(1), 9-15.
Hastings, K. G., Jose, P. O., Kapphahn, K. I., Frank, A. T., Goldstein, B. A., Thompson, C.
A., ... & Palaniappan, L. P. (2015). Leading causes of death among Asian American
subgroups (2003–2011). PLoS One, 10(4), e0124341.
Jang, Y., & Kim, M. T. (2019). Limited English proficiency and health service use in Asian
Americans. Journal of immigrant and minority health, 21(2), 264-270.
Katigbak, C., Foley, M., Robert, L., & Hutchinson, M. K. (2016). Experiences and lessons
learned in using community‐based participatory research to recruit Asian American
immigrant research participants. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 48(2), 210-218.
Silva, S. (2018). Cultures: How Different Are They? A Nursing Perspective.
U.S Department of health and human services. (2019). Asian American - The Office of
Minority Health. Retrieved 29 September 2019, from
https://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=3&lvlid=63
World Health Organization. (2019). The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Retrieved 29
September 2019, from
https://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/previous/ottawa/en/

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