[San Jose, CA] Santa Clara County Supervisors Joe Simitian and Dave Cortese successfully championed the launch of a health assessment of the Asian population.  The assessment will be conducted by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department.

The collected data will be used to determine the high priority health issues that Asian residents, who account for 35% of Santa Clara County residents, are facing, and optimize services in response. The assessment will also focus on finding strategies to reduce tobacco use and prevent obesity among the Asian subgroups.

The assessment will present a robust set of data including the following:

• Cross tab results by age, geography, and Asian subgroup for behavioral risk factors such as access to healthcare, chronic disease, mental health, nutrition, obesity, physical activity, substance use, tobacco use, and violence.

• Percentages by age, geography, and subgroup diagnosed with asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Alzheimer’s, dementia, osteoporosis, depression, stroke, and two or more of the aforementioned diseases.

• Percentage of those with one or more chronic disease who are home-bound.

• Percentage of risk behaviors (substance abuse, tobacco use, violence, etc.) coincident with physical and mental health issues in each subgroup.

The data collection will be based on a two-part methodology. In the first part, the Public Health Department’s Epidemiology and Data Management United will collect and analyze information from existing sources. In a second part, the Public Health Department will collect information through the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey, a federally funded phone survey the County conducts every few years, planned to launch next winter. Following the collection of data, the Public Health Department will conduct focus groups and key informant interviews to supplement the data findings. It will then analyze and report to the Board its finding and recommendations.

“Learning more about the health needs of different Asian groups improves our ability to serve County residents,” said Michele Lew, President and CEO. “We thank County Supervisors Dave Cortese and Joe Simitian for championing this health assessment.”

For more information, please contact Amandine Aubin at (408) 975-2730 x 313 or amandine.aubin@aaci.org.