KEYNOTE ADDRESS OF THE SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE HEALTH OF CHINESE IN NORTH AMERICA: Health Status of Chinese Americans: Challenges and Opportunities.

PURPOSE. This paper is based on the author's keynote address given at the Seventh International Conference on the Health Problems of Chinese in North America. METHODS. The author/speaker reviewed the literature related to Chinese American health problems within the context of the broader demographic and aggregated health data reported on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. FINDINGS. In addition to background demographic statistics provided on Chinese Americans, the author/speaker focused on two categories of diseases: (1) communicable diseases; and (2) chronic diseases because of the greater availability of data on these categories. Communicable diseases from which Chinese Americans appear to suffer disproportionally are tuberculosis and hepatitis B. Infection with the hepatitis B virus also makes Chinese Americans much more susceptible to chronic liver diseases including cancer. Chinese also suffer disproportionally more from nasopharyngeal cancer; because of higher than average adult male smoking rates, these men can be expected to suffer disproportionally from a future epidemic of lung cancer cases. Unhealthy acculturation patterns in food consumption point towards changing profiles of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality as well as higher rates of dietary related cancers. OBSERVATIONS. Rather than conclusions, observations of the current health status of Chinese Americans were offered. Four measures that organizations such as the Chinese medical societies and Chinese American health professionals can pursue to advance the health status of Chinese Americans, particularly in the area of heaslth policy, are: (1) voting; (2) collecting data on health status; (3) writing for professional journals; and (4) being active in policy development. KEY WORDS. Chinese Americans; health status; tuberculosis; hepatits B; cancer; diet; acculturation; smoking