Housing instability and concern about firearm victimisation among Asian Americans

Background: Rising costs of living, coupled with housing shortages across the USA, have made housing instability a key issue over the past few years. Alongside this problem has also been a steady rise in violence against (and gun deaths among) Asian Americans. Limited scholarship, however, has examined these issues in the context of this increasingly stigmatised population. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between housing instability and firearm victimisation among Asian Americans. We further assessed how being worried about victimisation may vary by ethnicity.

Methods: We conducted secondary data analysis, using the 2021-2022 California Health Interview Survey. We used weighted logistic regression to assess the association between housing instability and firearm victimisation among Asian Americans.

Results: Asian respondents experiencing housing instability had significantly greater odds of worrying about firearm victimisation, compared with those with a stable home, even after accounting for various sociodemographic and health-related factors (adjusted OR (AOR)=1.79, p<0.05). Additionally, the odds of being concerned about firearm victimisation were significantly lower among Japanese (AOR=0.64) and Vietnamese (AOR=0.72) participants, compared with Chinese respondents (both p<0.05).

Discussion and conclusions: Our findings confirm that not having a stable home is strongly linked to worrying about firearm victimisation among Asian Americans. This concern varies significantly by ethnicity. We highlight the importance of disaggregating data on Asian Americans and discuss broader implications for public health.