Japanese-Americans: Aging Template?

The proportion of older Japanese-Americans is far larger than any other ethnic group in the United States, making them a good study cohort to determin how the rest of the country will handle aging in the future, according to UCLA researchers.

A recently released study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research concluded that nearly a quarter of Japanese-Americans are over the age of 65, twice the populace at large. However, over the next 35 years, the proportion of the U.S. population over 65 will match the current numbers of Japanese-Americans – meaning the former group could provide a glimpse of what is in store for older Americans down the line.  

“Information on key lifestyle and quality-of-life practices that support healthy aging among the Japanese population can help the U.S. prepare for the influx of aging Baby Boomers,” the report said.

“Japanese-Americans provide a window into our future,” said Ying-Ying Meng, lead author of the study and co-director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research's chronic disease program. “They show us one vision of how our nation can age and can help us prepare for the enormous generational shift ahead.”

How Japanese-Americans are handling aging is a mixed bag. Only 8.1% report their health as being poor or just fair – far lower than other Asian ethnic groups and California's overall average of 20.1%. They are far less obese than Californians as a whole and less likely to suffer from heart disease and psychological distress, although the researchers suggested the latter indicator may be skewed by mental health conditions being considered a stigma among the Japanese community. But Japanese-Americans are also far less likelier than other Californians to report some form of disability. By contrast, Japanese-Americans more likely than other California residents to suffer from hypertension, arthritis and binge drinking. And younger Japanese were more likely to have unhealthy diets.

“In diet, for instance, the older Japanese population and new immigrants from Japan eat traditional foods — such as fish, miso soup and produce — while the younger, racially mixed generation is more fueled by fast food,” Meng said.

Altogether, Japanese-Americans scored better than the average in nine of 15 different health indicators.

The study did not make any specific recommendations as to how the Japanese-American community may be studied in the coming decades.