A Binational Perspective on Health Behavior and Health Status Among Korean Immigrants in the United States and Koreans in Korea

Chaegyung Jun

Research has shown evidences of “healthy immigrant effect” for Hispanic/Latino immigrants to the U.S. by comparing the health status of immigrants to the U.S. born natives and their counterparts in the originating countries (Abraído-Lanza et al., 2005; Markides & Eschbach, 2005) and lower rates of preterm, low birth weight, and infant mortality (Hummer, Powers, Pullum, Ginger, & Frisbie, 2007; Wingate & Alexander, 2006). However, little work has been done to test the “healthy immigrant effect” for Asian immigrants including Koreans due to limitation of data that would allow researchers to test the hypothesis by enabling comparisons between those who migrate and those who do not. By linking the Korean Health Panel and the restricted National Health Interview Survey data, I explore health selection of Korean immigrants in the United States. This study is the first work to explore whether the similar health selection is observed among Korean immigrants.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 3. Population, Development, & the Environment; Data & Methods; Applied Demography