Yang CQ, Woo BKP. Mental health of older Asian Americans: Current issues, updates, and future directions. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(8): 106806 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i8.106806]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Benjamin K P Woo, MD, Professor, Chinese American Health Promotion Laboratory, University of California, 3230 Campbell Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States. bkpwoo@ucla.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatry. Aug 19, 2025; 15(8): 106806 Published online Aug 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i8.106806
Mental health of older Asian Americans: Current issues, updates, and future directions
Chiana Q Yang, Benjamin K P Woo
Chiana Q Yang, College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA 91766, United States
Benjamin K P Woo, Chinese American Health Promotion Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
Benjamin K P Woo, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, Olive View - UCLA Medical Center, Sylmar, CA 91342, United States
Benjamin K P Woo, Asian American Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States
Author contributions: Yang CQ and Woo BKP performed the collection of data; Yang CQ and Woo BKP contributed to the manuscript drafting; Yang CQ and Woo BKP provided critical revisions and final approval of the manuscript; All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Benjamin K P Woo, MD, Professor, Chinese American Health Promotion Laboratory, University of California, 3230 Campbell Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States. bkpwoo@ucla.edu
Received: March 7, 2025 Revised: April 14, 2025 Accepted: June 25, 2025 Published online: August 19, 2025 Processing time: 154 Days and 11.6 Hours
Abstract
As the population of older Asian Americans continues to grow rapidly, understanding their mental health needs has become increasingly critical. This literature review summarizes current issues, developments, and future directions in addressing the mental health challenges faced by older Asian Americans in the last five years. We briefly touch on the comparative prevalence of mental health disorders experienced by ethnic subgroups. Additionally, we review recent studies highlighting the role of the coronavirus disease 2019, racism, social support, cultural stigma, and self-rated health as significant factors influencing mental well-being of this population. We discuss the utilization of health services among older Asian Americans. We conclude with thoughts for future research, emphasizing the importance of longitudinal studies, consideration of diverse Asian American ethnic subgroups, and culturally sensitive diagnostic and treatment approaches.
Core Tip: Recent literature on the mental health of older Asian Americans highlights how discrimination exacerbated by the coronavirus disease 2019 had greater association with depression than before the pandemic, while social support, ethnic resources, and community engagement may mitigate these effects. Older adults receive less needed social support compared to other racial groups with Koreans receiving the least. Older adults are more likely to endorse stigmatizing beliefs about depression, prefer medication and culturally competent providers, and only seek professional services when their need becomes great. This article discusses future directions and the need for culturally sensitive, community-based interventions.
