Abstract
Background: Arab Americans are a historically understudied minority group in the United States and their health needs and risks have been poorly documented. We aim to provide an updated comprehensive review of the literature on Arab American physical and mental health and provide suggestions for future work in this field.Methods: A comprehensive review of the English language medical and public health literature published prior to 2017 identified through multiple database searches was conducted with search terms describing Arab Americans and health outcomes and behaviors. The literature was qualitatively summarized by health behavior (vaccination, tobacco use, drug and alcohol use, and physical activity), health outcome (diabetes, mental health, cardiovascular disease, cancer, women's, and child health), and populations at increased risk of poor health outcomes (adolescents and the elderly).Results: The majority of studies identified exploring Arab American health have been published since 2009 with an increase in the number of longitudinal and intervention studies done with this population. The majority of research is being undertaken among individuals living in ethnic enclaves due to the lack of an ethnic or racial identifier that may help identify Arab Americans from population-based studies. Studies highlight the conflicting evidence in the prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease based on study sample, an increased understanding of cancer incidence and barriers to identification, and an increased level of knowledge regarding mental health and sexual health needs in the population. Information on health behaviors has also increased, with a better understanding of physical activity, alcohol and drug use, and vaccination.Conclusion: More research on Arab American health is needed to identify risks and needs of this marginalized population given the current social and political climate in the United States, especially with regard to acculturation status and immigrant generation status. We provide recommendations on approaches that may help improve our understanding of Arab American health.
Highlights
Race and ethnicity are a dominant part of national and academic conversations in the United States
We examined seven morbidity clusters for health outcomes including diabetes, mental health, women’s and child health, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other health outcomes
The number of United States cities and regions in which Arab American health research is taking place has expanded since the last review
Summary
Race and ethnicity are a dominant part of national and academic conversations in the United States. A recent report by the Arab American Institute Foundation has found that in line with the general surge of biasmotivated violence in the past few years, Arab Americans are at increased risk for hate crimes [1] This discrepancy between having a highly visible and stigmatized group that has a general lack of visibility in official documents or health records places Arab Americans in an unusual position in the American healthcare system—they are a group that both exists in the public consciousness but is un-counted and has not been a part of a national reckoning with its needs and particularities [2]. We aim to provide an updated comprehensive review of the literature on Arab American physical and mental health and provide suggestions for future work in this field
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