Contrasting the experiences for high- and low-income Asian Americans during COVID-19

Abstract

There is a lack of quantitative research examining how the pandemic has affected individuals at different income levels. The Asian American population has the highest level of income inequality and serves as an excellent case study for examining differences in experience between income groups. A non-probability sample of 3084 Asian American adults living in the US was surveyed in June 2020, examining health-related behaviors and outcomes. Descriptive analyses and chi-squared statistics were conducted to identify differences in income groups (low, medium, high) among Asian Americans across regional subgroups (East, South, Southeast, Multiethnic) and disaggregated ethnicities (Chinese, Asian Indian, Japanese, and Filipino). In bivariable analyses, a significantly (p < 0.05) greater percentage of high-income individuals during the pandemic reported having enough money to buy the food they needed, a away to get to the store for food, and reported stores where they get food had everything they needed. High-income Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino individual also noted that, since the COVID-19 crisis, they are now working partially or fully from home. In the total sample, multivariable adjusted logistic regressions revealed medium- and low-income individuals to have low odds of working partially or fully from home (AOR:0.55, 95%CI:0.42–0.72), higher odds of not having enough money to buy the food they needed (AOR:3.54, 95%CI:1.43–11.81), and higher odds of eating less (AOR:1.58, 95%CI:1.14–2.22). These results highlight the importance of considering income distribution when characterizing disparities in health behaviors within racial/ethnic minority groups and underscore the need to bolster the infrastructure supporting low-income Asian Americans.