Health Conditions Among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Adults

Posted by Kay Deeney on March 15th, 2017 Posted in: Announcements, Data, Health Disparities, News & Reports, Public Health

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In 2014, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) conducted the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander National Health Interview Survey (NHPI NHIS). The survey involved about 3,000 households containing one or more NHPI residents who were surveyed by NHIS field staff using the 2014 NHIS instrument. The NHPI NHIS was an unprecedented opportunity to collect rich and accurate information from a large NHPI sample about the health of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in all 50 states. In March, 2017, the NCHS released the Data Brief on the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander National Health Interview Survey (NHPI NHIS). Key findings include:

• The age-sex-adjusted percentages of NHPI adults with fair or poor health (15.5%), serious psychological distress (4.1% in past 30 days), cancer (5.7%), coronary heart disease (6.0%), diabetes (15.6%), lower back pain (28.5% in past 3 months), arthritis (19.7%), migraines (14.1% in past 3 months), and asthma (9.9%) were  greater than the corresponding percentages for single-race Asian adults.
• NHPI adults were more likely than all U.S. adults to be in fair or poor health, to have diabetes, and to have ever had asthma, but they were less likely to have cancer.

Galinsky AM, Zelaya CE, Barnes PM, Simile C. Selected Health Conditions Among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Adults: United States 2014. NCHS Data Brief 277 March, 2017.

Thanks to Sela V. Panapasa, PhD, from the University of Michigan, for alerting us.