ABSTRACT

The majority of KAs are relatively new immigrants. As a recent immigrant group, KAs face many barriers to accessing relevant health information and health services, partly due to their low English language proficiency levels and their low rates of having health insurance. Due to aggregating national health data for more than 60 Asian nationalities into one Asian American group, little is known about health and health information needs, barriers to health information seeking, communications, and health care services for specifically KAs. This chapter reviews the previous studies of KAs to describe the health information seeking behaviors and synthesize cultural and linguistic barriers to health literacy and health care access among KAs. Based on existing empirical evidence, we provide recommendations for strategies to optimize information seeking and promote proper health communication to meet the health priorities and needs of KAs.