Increased Self-Reported Discrimination and Concern for Physical Assault Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and Filipino Americans

Abstract

Objectives. To investigate self-reported discrimination and concern for physical assault due to the COVID-19 pandemic among disaggregated Asian subgroups in the US. Methods. We conducted a nationwide survey to assess self-reported discrimination and concern for physical assault due to COVID-19 across racial/ethnic groups, including diverse subgroups of Asians. Results. Chinese respondents experienced the largest change (15% increase) in proportion of respondents reporting discrimination from 2019 to 2020 (P<.01). Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Other API showed up to 3.9 times increased odds of self-reported racial/ethnic discrimination due to COVID-19 and, with the addition of Filipino, experienced up to 5.4 times increased odds of concern for physical assault due to COVID-19 compared to Whites. Conclusions. Our study is the first to examine self-reported discrimination and concern for physical assault due to COVID-19 in subgroups of Asian Americans, finding that East (Chinese, Korean, Japanese) and Southeast (Vietnamese, Filipino) Asian Americans have been disproportionately affected. Future studies should disaggregate Asian subgroups to fully understand experiences of discrimination in diverse populations in the US.