Cancer Kills More Chinese New Yorkers Than Any Other Group, City Data Says

CHINATOWN, NY — A new analysis of city health data shows that cancer disproportionately kills Chinese-Americans in New York.

Cancer was the leading cause of death for Chinese New Yorkers, according to the city's new report analyzing mortality data from 2014. The disease killed 33 percent of Chinese-Americans in NYC, which in the city's survey included anyone who reported their ancestry or race as Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kongese or Cantonese.

In 2014, cancer killed 25 percent of New Yorkers across all racial and ethnic groups, but was responsible for 33 percent of deaths among the Chinese population, the analysis said. Furthermore, fatal lung cancer diagnoses among Chinese New Yorkers buck a citywide trend: While lung cancer deaths dipped 16.4 percent in New York City between 2010 and 2014, they increased a startling 70 percent among Chinese residents in the same time frame, according to the city. (Want more local news? Sign up here for free news alerts and neighborhood updates from Patch.)

"The smoking rate for Asian American men in New York City was 25.4 percent in 2015, the highest rate for all major race and ethnic groups inNew York City," said Dr. Warren Chin, the executive director of the Chinese American Medical Society. “All of us – physicians, hospitals, health clinics, the health department, community leaders and our elected officials – need to work together to reduce tobacco use in the community."

Because of this upward trend, the city is working to spread an anti-smoking public health campaign in Chinese-language media outlets.

Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou, who represents Chinatown and other neighborhoods in the state assembly, called the report an "eye-opener."

"We need more data like this out there, so we can increase awareness around these major health concerns, and then work together to provide the resources to communities where they are most needed," Niou said in a statement. "Moving forward, I will be sharing the data collected in this report with my colleagues in the State's Asian Pacific American Legislative Task Force so that we can examine the best way to improve the overall health of Chinese-American New Yorkers."

The data, which was released this week by the city, is part a health department initiative to increase neighborhood-specific services in areas that are disproportionately affected by public health epidemics. The complete analysis is available here.

Lead image via Shutterstock; secondary image via NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.