Role of gender, insurance status and culture in attitudes and health behavior in a US Chinese student population

Introduction. Asians are an understudied population in health research. Often their lower utilization of health care services and low participation in clinical trials has been attributed to socioeconomic factors and cultural beliefs. However, the role of gender and perceptions of health beliefs across generations in determining access have not been studied in this population. Objective. This study seeks to examine the relationship of gender to the health beliefs and health utilization Patterns of a group of undergraduate Chinese students in regard to their own use and what they perceived as their parents' use. Design. Seventy-eight Chinese students responded to a health belief and utilization survey. They were asked to provide information on their perceptions and attitudes of health as well as what they perceived to be their parents' health attitudes and behavior. Results. Findings indicated that female students were more proactive in their health beliefs towards preventive care and getting regular check-lips than male students. This difference between genders remained true in the students' perceptions of their mothers being more likely to seek preventive care and to get regular check-ups than their fathers. Cultural factors including privacy and modesty were important factors in determining use of health care by Chinese women. Insurance status played an important role in determining health behavior among Chinese men. Uninsured fathers were perceived as more likely to use complementary and alternative therapies (CAM) than mothers. Male students and fathers who had private insurance were perceived to access and utilize health services equally as the women. Gender differences are seemingly less apparent among parents who are using CAM. Language difficulty was identified most frequently as the major barrier to accessing care among this population. Conclusions. Considerations of socioeconomic factors, cultural and language barriers need to be made with particular focus on gender differences in attitudes and health behavior when making policy decisions for the Asian American population. Further studies are also needed on intergenerational attitudes and health behavior of older Asian Americans.