Frontline Health Workers' Perceptions of Digital Health Platforms: Qualitative Insights From the North Guwahati Block in Assam.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), around 5% of Asian American adults aged 18 years or older experienced a major depressive episode (MDE) in the past year. Community derived estimates which disaggregate ‘Asians’ by their ethnic origins; however, note much higher rates among different groups. A recent 2020 New York City study report on adult depression (aged 18 to 85 years) indicated rates for Koreans at 6.7%, Filipinos at 7.7%, Chinese at 12.8%, Vietnamese at 20.5%, and Cambodian at 39.1%. Prevalence differences were also found in an earlier meta-analysis of 58 community depression prevalence studies of US adults aged 18 or older from 2004-2014, in which pooled depression prevalence rates for included multi-ethnic studies reported the lowest depression rate for Chinese individuals (15.7%) followed by Japanese (20.4%), Koreans (33.3%), and Filipinos (34.4%). These findings suggest that we may be missing the true magnitude of the problem when we study depression risk by “lumping” all Asian Americans into one group. Depression differences have long existed among Asian Americans who ethnically identify as Japanese, Korean, Filipino, or Chinese. This has led to studies examining risk factors and stratifying depression results by Asian ethnic origin. Risk factors examined include age, education, gender, self-esteem, acculturation, violence, sexual identity, and prior depression, with discrimination being the most robustly studied risk factor. Our study thus examines numerous risk robustly studied resiliency predictors of depression among Asian American young adults to provide a better understanding of the attributes, circumstances, and context of Asian American depression during young adulthood. Research has consistently shown that discrimination increases vulnerability for depression among Southeast and South Asian adults (aged 18 to 85 years) and that discrimination is differentially experienced by certain Asian ethnic groups. For example, Filipino American adults (mean age: 45 years) reported significantly more discrimination than Vietnamese or Chinese Americans (both with mean age: 41 years) in turn reported significant negative effects from discrimination on their mental health.