China News Service, March 29. According to a comprehensive report on the Chinese website of the United States, a recent study published in the "Journal of the American Council of Family Medicine" shows that compared with their peers of other ethnic groups, Asian seniors are significantly more satisfied with their lives. low and receive less emotional support.

　　The study is based on 2018 data from the California Health Interview Survey, which included a sample of nearly 8,200 Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Vietnamese seniors aged 65 and older.

The study, published in January this year, has been peer-reviewed.

　　"We know it's a common misconception that Asians are better off than other ethnic groups," said Riti Shimkhada, the study's lead investigator and a senior research fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. A lot is not understood, and these results show that their lives are not as good as one might expect."

　　Only 54 percent of older Asian Americans surveyed were satisfied with their lives, compared with 80 percent of respondents of other ethnicities.

At the same time, 56% of older Asian Americans report that they often or always receive the social and emotional support they need, which is also significantly lower than the 80% of other groups.

There were no significant differences in the income level or household size of the respondents, Shimkhada said.

　　Among Asian Americans, Korean-American seniors had the lowest life satisfaction at 40 percent.

Less than a third of Korean-American respondents said they received the social and emotional support they needed, compared with nearly two-thirds of Chinese and Filipino respondents.

　　Several social and cultural factors make the aging process especially painful for people from marginalized communities, said DJ Ida, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Mental Health Association.

　　"In general, the need for mental health increases with age," says DJ Ida, noting that physical and emotional exhaustion, as well as "anxiety surrounding the meaning of life," increases with age. It has become more serious, "but our medical facilities are not adequate to meet the needs of the Asian American community."

　　For example, according to a report by the National Asia-Pacific Center on Aging, not many mental health services are able to meet the language needs of older Asians, more than half of whom have limited English proficiency.

　　The biggest limitation of the study, Shimkhada said, was that data on life satisfaction and emotional support was only available for one year, making it difficult to track long-term trends or the impact of the outbreak.

In addition, South Asians were not included in the analysis because their sample size was too small.

　　The pandemic has exacerbated social isolation and loneliness among older adults, potentially leading to lower life satisfaction.

A new report from the Asian American Federation found that 75 percent of older Asian Americans in New York are afraid to leave their homes because of anti-Asian violence.

But Shimkhada said the rise in anti-Asian hate incidents has also led to an uptick in community support for seniors, especially in the form of volunteer patrol groups, which could foster a sense of support.

　　Another area for improvement is primary care or family physicians, who are often the first or only point of social contact for many older adults.

　　Seniors experiencing chronic poverty have higher levels of fear and anxiety, often stemming from traumatic experiences, notes Winnie Yu, director of programs and management at the nonprofit group Self-Help for Seniors.

　　Self Help for Seniors provides health care and social services to more than 40,000 low-income seniors in the San Francisco Bay Area.

During the pandemic, the agency has launched a series of video and in-person events, including yoga, stress reduction and nutrition workshops, history and computer classes.

　　Winnie Yu said the results of the elderly satisfaction survey were consistent with what she observed in the community, but the data may have been underestimated because some elderly people were reluctant to report their true condition and were resistant to seeking psychotherapy.

　　"My concern is that more seniors are suffering silently, thinking they can handle it themselves, and will do as much as they can on their own instead of asking for help," she said.