Older African Americans and Asian Americans in the U.S. underuse mental health services, despite their vulnerability to diverse mental health problems. This study examined their perspectives on the importance of various mental health problems, mental health treatment, and provider type preference. A total of 243 participants residing in Philadelphia were recruited through community-based organizations. Chi-square, ANOVA, and logistic regression were conducted to examine ethnic differences in demographic characteristics, mental health screening needs, and treatment preferences. African Americans were more likely to endorse the screening needs for depression (AOR: 3.77; 95% CI: 1.19–11.93, p < 0.05) and less likely to endorse the screening needs for suicide (AOR: 0.24; 95% CI: 0.08–0.76, p < 0.05) compared to Asian Americans. For treatment preferences, African Americans were more likely to seek help from primary care physicians (AOR: 8.26; 95% CI: 1.71–32.86, p < 0.01) and less likely to prefer medication as a treatment option (AOR: 0.36; 95% CI: 0.09–0.79, p < 0.05) than Asian Americans. African Americans and Asian Americans prioritized mental health screening needs differently and had different treatment preferences, indicating that matching community needs and preferences regarding mental health services is critical to improve mental service utilization rates in the targeted populations.

Background: Subjective memory impairment (SMI) is associated with negative health outcomes including mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. However, ethnic differences in SMI and disparities in risk factors associated with SMI among minority populations are understudied. The study examined the ethnic differences in SMI, whether SMI was associated with depressive symptoms, sleep, and physical activity (PA), and whether the associations vary across racial/ethnic groups. Methods: Participants included 243 African and Asian Americans (including Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean Americans) aged 50 or older. Demographic information, SMI, depressive symptoms, daily sleeping hours, and PA levels were assessed. Results: Vietnamese Americans reported the highest SMI score. Depressive symptoms, sleeping hours, and PA levels were significantly associated with SMI. Depressive symptoms were the only significant factor across all ethnic groups. Significant interaction effects were found between ethnicity and health behaviors in predicting SMI. In particular, Vietnamese American participants with greater depressive symptoms and physical inactivity were significantly more likely to experience SMI compared to other ethnic groups Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate ethnic differences in SMI and its association with depressive symptoms, sleep, and PA, which highlight the importance of considering the unique cultural and historical backgrounds across different racial/ethnic groups when examining cognitive functioning in elderly.

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer and the third highest cause of mortality in Vietnamese Americans. Lifestyle behaviors including diet, physical activity, smoking, and drinking have been associated with the incidence of CRC. Despite the association between health behaviors and CRC, as well as documented non-optimal engagement in healthy lifestyle behaviors among this group, little research has been done to address health behaviors in Vietnamese Americans. Methodology We recruited 804 Vietnamese Americans aged 50 or order from 20 community-based organizations (CBOs) in the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area. As a dependent variable, lifestyle behaviors were measured as a composite score of smoking, drinking, diet, and physical activity. Measures for independent variables included knowledge on CRC risks and screening, cancer related health beliefs, CRC screening self-efficacy, and CRC related social norm. Descriptive analysis, t-test (for categorical IVs) and correlation analysis (for continuous IVs) were first conducted to select the variables to be included in the multiple regression analysis. Results Among 804 participants, 41% were men, 60% were women, and about 22% were older than 75. Approximately 62% had an annual household income below $20,000, and only 18% had a college degree or higher. We conducted a bivariate (t-test and correlation) analysis. The results showed that gender, income, knowledge on CRC risk factors, beliefs that getting cancer is determined by the fate, and two CRC-related social norms were associated with composite score of lifestyle behaviors. Multiple regression analysis showed that being female (log odds = 2.02, 95% CI 1.53–2.51) and having greater knowledge (log odds = .61, 95% CI .002–.21) on CRC risk factors are significant predictors of healthy lifestyle behaviors controlling for other variables. Conclusion Findings revealed sub-optimal levels of healthy lifestyle behaviors and knowledge of CRC risk factors among Vietnamese Americans. The study highlights the importance of educating knowledge about the risk factors of CRC to improve lifestyle behaviors, which may eventually contribute to preventing CRC in this population. Acknowledgement: This research project was supported by grant U01MD010627 (PI: Grace X. Ma, PhD) funded by National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of National Institute of Health (NIH), and partially supported by the grant of U54 CA221704(5) funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of NIH (Contact PIs: Grace X. Ma, PhD and Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi, MD, PhD). The contents of this abstract are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIMHD or the NCI, NIH. Citation Format: Minsun Lee, Lin Zhu, Jin-Hyeok Nam, Cicely K Johnson, Carolyn Fang, Grace X Ma. Correlates of lifestyle behaviors to prevent colorectal cancer among low-income Vietnamese Americans [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr D026.