Project Summary
Despite being one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations in the United States, older Chinese Americans
remain understudied in health research. The penetration of the model minority stereotype has caused the
overlook of significant disadvantages and health burdens experienced by older Chinese Americans, particularly
foreign-born older Chinese Americans. The double disadvantage of being a member of an ethnic minority and
foreign-born puts foreign-born older Chinese Americans at high risk of experiencing psychosocial stressors,
including anti-Asian racism and social isolation. These psychosocial stressors are key risk factors for poor
physical health, including poor cardiometabolic health. Indeed, existing studies have shown a fast decline in
cardiometabolic health after immigrating to the United States among older Chinese immigrants. However, there
is a lack of a fine-grained characterization of psychosocial stressors and the processes through which these
psychosocial stressors affect cardiometabolic health in older Chinese immigrants. Existing studies on this topic
were largely focused on non-Hispanic Whites or other ethnic minorities. To address this gap, we aim to adopt a
mixed-methods approach, along with the ecological momentary assessment, to identify the key psychosocial
stressors related to cardiometabolic health in a sample of 80 older Chinese immigrants. Specifically, our
proposed aims are: Aim 1a: Investigate the intermediate role of daily emotion (negative and positive emotion)
and salivary cortisol (a biological marker of stress) through which psychosocial stressors (e.g., racial
discrimination) affect systemic inflammation (CRP, IL-6) and metabolic syndrome; Aim 1b: Explore whether key
sociocultural factors (living in ethnic enclaves, English proficiency, socioeconomic status) will attenuate the
associations examined in Aim 1a; and Aim 2: Identify additional cultural, environmental, family, and individual
factors that further explain the association between psychosocial stress and cardiometabolic health through
semi-structured interviews in a subsample of 16 participants from Aim 1. Findings from this proposed study will
contribute to our understanding of key psychosocial stressors and related biopsychological processes
contributing to poor cardiometabolic health in older Chinese immigrants. As a result, this project will guide the
design of future culturally-tailored, time-sensitive, personalized psychosocial interventions that aim to reduce
racial disparities in cardiometabolic health and promote healthy equity in older Chinese Americans.