Ethnic-group socioeconomic status as an indicator of community-level disadvantage: A study of overweight/obesity in Asian American adolescents

Abstract

Asian American children and adolescents are an under-investigated subpopulation in obesity research. Informed by a wide socioeconomic diversity among Asian American ethnic groups, this study explored ethnic-group socioeconomic status (SES) as an indicator of community-level disadvantage that may influence overweight/obesity in Asian American adolescents. We hypothesized that ethnic-group SES was inversely associated with overweight/obesity in Asian American adolescents. Multiple logistic regression models were fitted using a sample of 1,525 Asian American adolescents ages 12–17 from pooled 2007–2012 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data. Age, gender, nativity, individual-level SES (income and education), and two lifestyle variables (fast food consumption and physical activity) were controlled for. We found that adolescents in high- or middle-level SES ethnic groups were far less likely to be overweight/obese than those in low-SES ethnic groups. Further, these relationships were more pronounced for foreign-born adolescents but not significant for U.S.-born adolescents. Ethnic-group SES may be a meaningful indicator of community-level socioeconomic disparities that influence the health of Asian Americans and, potentially, other populations with high proportions of immigrants of diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.

Significant differences in maternal child‐feeding style between ethnic groups in the UK: the role of deprivation and parenting styles

“…However, there are also a number of parallels: Black and South Asian groups in the UK and Hispanic, Latino, and African American groups in the USA have, on average, higher poverty and lower education levels compared to White groups . Poverty and lower education in turn have been associated with maternal preferences and perceptions for child weight.…”

Recent origin and evolution of obesity-income correlation across the United States

“…In the simplest view, obesity in Developed economies is a result of over-abundance of inexpensive food calories combined with decreases in daily physical activity in the industrialized world and its built environment (Mattson et al, 2014;Mullan et al, 2017). Negative energy balance is not the only factor, however, and with heterogeneity across socioeconomic groups, the specific causes for the rapid and recent increase in U.S. obesity remain unclear (Cook et al, 2017;Dwyer-Lindgren et al, 2013;Flegal et al, 2016).…”

“…Dietary habits are often determined as much by cultural traditions as they are by nutritional needs and family economics (Anderson and Whitaker, 2010;Anderson, 2012;Hughes et al, 2010;Lhila, 2011;Mata et al, 2017;Redsell et al, 2010;Vizireanu and Hruschka, 2018). Cultural factors may therefore underlie local differences in obesity and diabetes rates, which exhibit effects of local neighborhood and its built environment (Alvarado, 2016;Carroll et al, 2016;Mullan et al, 2017;Kowaleski-Jones et al, 2017), family size (Datar, 2017), ethnic group and age group (Cook et al, 2017).…”

Food Insecurity and Major Diet-Related Morbidities in Migrating Children: A Systematic Review

“…The increased risk of being overweight in children with a migration background is affected by multiple factors, such as maternal obesity [35,40], given that women commonly assume the primary responsibility for the care and feeding of children using familiar lifestyle behaviors [69], lower economic income [50,54,55], and male gender [40]. Indeed, boys, even if generally more active than girls, have been reported to consume fewer vegetables and more sweet drinks compared to girls of the same age and to watch television more hours per day [70], thus unbalancing the ratio between caloric intake and consumption.…”

“…The correlation between socioeconomic status and overweight/obesity was treated by Cook et al [54] among seven Asian American ethnic groups. Adolescents from migrant families in the high-middle-level socioeconomic status ethnic group were less likely to be obese/overweight than those in the low-level (p < 0.01); this feature was not significant among US-born adolescents.…”