Asian Canadian Health
Immigrants from all parts of Asia call Canada their 'home'. Customarily referred to as Asian Canadians, this diverse and vibrant community has contributed to all aspects of life in Canada. To celebrate this, the Government of Canada designated May as Asian Heritage month.
During this year's Asian Heritage Month, let's take a moment to reflect on health issues specific to Asian Canadians. Every racial group has specific health concerns. These are largely determined by genetics, environmental factors, access to health care and cultural factors. The Government of Canada does not collect health data by race or ethnicity and Canadian research on the health of Asian Canadians is scarce so we have to rely heavily on American data.
According to US Cancer statistics, cancer is the leading cause of death for female Asian Americans. These figures include cervical and breast cancer. This is particularly disturbing since the majority of US Asian born individuals emigrated from countries with the overall lowest breast cancer rates in the world. Liver cancer is also disproportionate in Asian Americans and is the third leading cancer among these ethnic groups.
Type2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular diseases are also rapidly growing health challenges in Asian Americans. Again, there is a strong correlation to environmental and lifestyle changes encountered by Asian immigrants in North America.
For more information about health concerns faced by Asian Americans and Canadians, check out the links of the National Library of Medicine and MedlinePlus websites.
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