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September 7, 2008Older Vietnamese report more mental health problems |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Irvine, Calif., Sept. 3, 2008 --- Vietnamese Americans over 55, most who came to the United States as political refugees, report more mental health problems than non-Hispanic whites, according to a UC Irvine Center for Health Care Policy analysis of state data. Vietnamese Americans participating in the California Health Interview Survey were twice as likely as whites to report needing mental health care but were less likely to discuss such issues with their doctor. While the study highlights the need for improved community mental health services, it also reveals long-standing mental health issues among older Vietnamese related to the Vietnam War and to adjusting to life in the U.S. as older immigrants, said study leader Dr. Quyen Ngo-Metzger. The first arrived in 1975 when many Vietnamese with ties to the U.S. government left their country for fear of reprisals under the new communist regime. The second wave came between 1978 and 1984 with the "boat people" escaping religious and political persecution on small fishing vessels. A third group, from 1985 to 1990, consisted of Amerasian children of U.S. servicemen and Vietnamese mothers. Dara Sorkin, Dr. Angela Tan, Ron Hays and Dr. Carol Mangione of UCI also worked on the study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health and appears in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students and nearly 2,000 faculty members.
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