IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2006.102814_4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Immigration and generational trends in body mass index and obesity in the United States: Results of the National Latino and Asian American Survey, 2002-2003

Author

Listed:
  • Bates, L.M.
  • Acevedo-Garcia, D.
  • Alegría, M.
  • Krieger, N.

Abstract

Objectives. We examined patterns of body mass index (BMI) and obesity among a nationally representative sample of first-, second-, and third-generation Latinos and Asian Americans to reveal associations with nativity or country of origin. Methods. We used data from the National Latino and Asian American Survey (2002-2003) to generate nationally representative estimates of mean BMI and obesity prevalence and explored changes in the distribution of BMI by generational status. Analyses tested the association between generational status and BMI and examined whether this association varied by ethnicity, education, or gender. Results. We found substantial heterogeneity in BMI and obesity by country of origin and an increase in BMI in later generations among most subgroups. The data suggest different patterns for Latinos and Asian Americans in the nature and degree of distributional changes in BMI with generational status in the United States. Conclusions. Generational status is associated with increased BMI and obesity among Latinos and Asian Americans. Aggregate estimates not accounting for nativity and country of origin may mask significant heterogeneity in the prevalence of obesity and patterns of distributional change, with implications for prevention strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Bates, L.M. & Acevedo-Garcia, D. & Alegría, M. & Krieger, N., 2008. "Immigration and generational trends in body mass index and obesity in the United States: Results of the National Latino and Asian American Survey, 2002-2003," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(1), pages 70-77.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2006.102814_4
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.102814
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2006.102814
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2006.102814?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Buttenheim, Alison M. & Pebley, Anne R. & Hsih, Katie & Chung, Chang Y. & Goldman, Noreen, 2013. "The shape of things to come? Obesity prevalence among foreign-born vs. US-born Mexican youth in California," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-8.
    2. Astell-Burt, Thomas & Feng, Xiaoqi & Croteau, Karen & Kolt, Gregory S., 2013. "Influence of neighbourhood ethnic density, diet and physical activity on ethnic differences in weight status: A study of 214,807 adults in Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 70-77.
    3. Persephone Vargas & Leo-Felix Jurado, 2015. "Dietary Acculturation among Filipino Americans," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Francisca M. Antman & Brian Duncan & Stephen J. Trejo, 2020. "Ethnic attrition, assimilation, and the measured health outcomes of Mexican Americans," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1499-1522, October.
    5. Monika Sander, 2008. "Changes in Immigrants' Body Mass Index with Their Duration of Residence in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 122, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    6. Gonzalez, Christopher J. & Copeland, Molly & Shapiro, Martin F. & Moody, James, 2023. "Associations of peer generational status on adolescent weight across Hispanic immigrant generations: A social network analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    7. Colen, Cynthia G. & Ramey, David M. & Cooksey, Elizabeth C. & Williams, David R., 2018. "Racial disparities in health among nonpoor African Americans and Hispanics: The role of acute and chronic discrimination," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 167-180.
    8. McKennie, Caitlin & Argys, Laura M. & Friedson, Andrew I., 2018. "Is Good Health Contagious? The Impact of BMI Environment on Individual BMI," IZA Discussion Papers 11770, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Bridget K. Gorman & Cynthia Novoa & Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, 2016. "Migration Decisions, Acculturation, and Overweight among Asian and Latino Immigrant Adults in the United States," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 728-757, September.
    10. Wen, Ming & Maloney, Thomas N., 2014. "Neighborhood socioeconomic status and BMI differences by immigrant and legal status: Evidence from Utah," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 120-131.
    11. Susan L. Averett & Laura M. Argys & Jennifer L. Kohn, 2013. "Immigrants, wages and obesity: the weight of the evidence," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 13, pages 242-256, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Md Towfiqul Alam & Sandra E. Echeverria & Melissa J. DuPont-Reyes & Elizabeth Vasquez & Rosenda Murillo & Tailisha Gonzalez & Fatima Rodriguez, 2021. "Educational Attainment and Prevalence of Cardiovascular Health (Life’s Simple 7) in Asian Americans," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-12, February.
    13. Laura Argys, 2015. "Consequences of the obesity epidemic for immigrants," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 210-210, December.
    14. Buttenheim, Alison & Goldman, Noreen & Pebley, Anne R. & Wong, Rebeca & Chung, Chang, 2010. "Do Mexican immigrants "import" social gradients in health to the US?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(7), pages 1268-1276, October.
    15. Santosh Jatrana & Ken Richardson & Samba Siva Rao Pasupuleti, 2018. "The Effect of Nativity, Duration of Residence, and Age at Arrival on Obesity: Evidence from an Australian Longitudinal Study," VID Working Papers 1811, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
    16. Elizabeth Baker & Michael Rendall & Margaret Weden, 2015. "Epidemiological Paradox or Immigrant Vulnerability? Obesity Among Young Children of Immigrants," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1295-1320, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2006.102814_4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.