Background
Research on the “immigrant” or “Latino health paradox” has demonstrated that Latinos
exhibit better health than U.S.-born whites, for multiple health outcomes, despite
adjusting for socioeconomic status. However, little empirical research has focused
on women and even less has focused on how the neighborhood residential environment
is associated with these health differences, particularly in the area of diet.
Methods
We analyzed baseline data from 641 low-income women, nested within 184 census tracts,
enrolled in a nutrition intervention trial for postpartum women. Individual-level
variables, including race/ethnicity, nativity, duration of time in the United States,
language acculturation, emotional and instrumental support, and socioeconomic position,
were merged with tract-level variables from U.S. Census data (2000) based on residential
address. We assessed daily fruit and vegetable servings through a semiquantitative
food frequency questionnaire. Using MLWin 2.0 software, we employed a 2-level linear
regression model to ascertain associations of neighborhood immigrant, racial, and
socioeconomic composition with individual diet, adjusting for individual-level sociodemographic
characteristics.
Results
In our fully adjusted model, we observed a statistically significant increase of 1/3
of fruit and vegetable daily servings for each 10-percentage point increase in the
tract foreign-born population. Each 10-percentage point increase in the tract Black
population was associated with a significant 1/5 serving decrease in individual daily
fruit and vegetable intake.
Conclusions
Among this population of U.S. and foreign-born women, neighborhood composition was
associated with individual diet, above and beyond individual-level characteristics,
illuminating neighborhood context, immigrant health, and diet.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 29, 2008
Accepted:
November 20,
2007
Received:
May 21,
2007
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
