Introduction: Care Concerns For Elders In Korean And Korean American Communities

We are pleased to present this special issue on “Care Concerns for Elders in Korean and Korean American Communities.” The five articles represent a mosaic of scientific knowledge that speaks to diversity and intragroup variations on eldercare concerns in the national and international scene. To our knowledge, this is an historical first for this journal, namely, to have a publication devoted specifically to these ethnic populations. The emergence of Korean communities in the United States is a relatively recent phenomenon. Migration from Korea has primarily been since 1965, so that in 2000 over 90% of the approximately 70,000 Korean Americans aged 65 and older were not born in the United States, and 64% spoke little or no English. Over 20% had incomes below the poverty level, 19% lived alone, and one third had less than 9 years of schooling, while another third had a college degree or more (Yeo, 2009). In the context of eldercare and caregiving, this demographic profile highlights many challenges that need to be overcome in order to eliminate health care disparities for this specific ethnic minority group. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine’s report on “Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care“ (Smedley, Stith, & Nelson, 2003) emphasized the persistent disparities in health care access and outcomes among racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States. It was noted that there is limited information on health needs related to dementia care and intervention for older Korean Americans. Although there are no available epidemiological data on the prevalence of dementia among Korean American elders, studies from Korea estimated that this prevalence among elders aged 65 and over was between 8.0% and 11.5% (Moon, 2006). It would be reasonable to assume that this condition is also one of the major chronic illnesses faced by many older Korean Americans and their families.