The Characterization of Violent Deaths Among Asian and Pacific Islander Americans

Wesley Tran; Madeline B Thomas; Denise Garofalo; Monica Patten; Rachel Graham; Josue Estrella; Kaitlyn Dickinson; Heather Carmichael; Catherine G Velopulos; Quintin W O Myers

doi:10.1016/j.jss.2023.12.019

The Characterization of Violent Deaths Among Asian and Pacific Islander Americans

J Surg Res. 2024 May:297:109-120. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2023.12.019. Epub 2024 Mar 14.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX.
² Department of Surgery, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO.
³ Department of Surgery, Western Michigan Univeristy, Kalamoazoo, MI.
⁴ Department of Surgery, St. Joeseph Hospital Denver, Denver, CO.
⁵ Department of Surgery, Boston University, Boston, MA.
⁶ University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO.
⁷ Department of Surgery, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO. Electronic address: Quintin.Myers@cuanschutz.edu.

PMID: 38484452
DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2023.12.019

Abstract

Introduction: Health disparities in the Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (APIAs) community have not been well described, unlike non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic communities. However, there has been a rise in violence against the APIA community. This study explores and characterizes violent death by incident (e.g., homicide, suicide), weapon (e.g., firearm, strangulation), and location types among APIAs as they compare with other racial or ethnic groups.

Methods: We used the National Violent Death Reporting System from 2003 to 2018 to characterize violent deaths among APIA and compared them to all other races. We compared these racial categories in two ways. First, we compared all races as a categorical variable that included six non-Hispanic racial categories including "Other or unspecified" and "two or more races. We then created a binary variable of APIA versus All Other Races for analysis. We explored the incident type of death, substance abuse disorders, mental health history, and gang involvement among other variables. We used Chi-square tests for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney U-tests for continuous variables.

Results: Overall, APIAs had a unique pattern of violent death. APIAs were more likely to commit suicide (71.74%-62.21%, P<0.001) and less likely to die of homicide than other races (17.56%-24.31%, P<0.001). In the cases of homicide, APIAs were more likely to have their deaths precipitated by another crime (40.87% versus 27.87%, P < 0.001). APIAs were more than twice as likely to die of strangulation than other races (39.93%-18.06%, P<0.001). Conversely, APIAs were less likely to die by firearm than other races (29.69-51.51, P<0.001).

Conclusions: APIAs have a unique pattern of violence based on analysis of data from the National Violent Death Reporting System. Our data reveal a significant difference in the incident, weapon and location type as compared to Americans of other races, which begs further inquiry into the patterns of change in time and factors that contribute to inter-racial differences in death patterns.

Keywords: Asian American and Pacific Islanders; Homicide; National violent death reporting system; Suicide; Trauma.

MeSH terms

Cause of Death
Homicide*
Humans
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander*
Population Surveillance
Suicide*
United States
Violence*