What is SIDS?
SIDS Racial Disparities
Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders
In the United States, those who identify themselves as Asian
Americans and Pacific
Islanders come from a variety of islands, territories and
countries. Approximately 10.4
million Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders live in the United
States and U.S. Pacific Island
jurisdictions—4 percent of the total U.S. population.38
Pacific Islanders. Pacific Islanders include Native Hawaiian,
Polynesian, Micronesian and
Melanesian peoples who live on 22 islands. There are more than
1,000 different languages
spoken and 40 percent of the population does not fluently speak
English.39 In 1990, nearly
50 percent of Pacific Islanders lived in Hawaii, 30 percent
in California, 4 percent in
Washington and 2 percent in Texas and Utah. Infant mortality
rates are two times higher in
the Pacific Island jurisdictions.
Asian Americans. Asian Americans
include Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino,
Chinese and Asian Indian populations. More than 90 percent
of Asian Americans live
in urban areas such as Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco,
Honolulu and
Washington, D.C. The States with the highest populations are
California, New York,
Hawaii, Texas, Illinois, New Jersey and Washington. Many Asian
Americans have come to
the United States since 1965. While Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders are commonly
perceived as having few health problems, they do experience
disparities in health care
access.
SUID/SIDS Rates. This particular group experiences the
lowest SUID/SIDS rates at 0.185 per
1,000. It is important to note that the traditional infant
sleep position is supine for many of
these groups and sleep surfaces tend to be firm.
