American Journal of Public Health
Volume 102, Issue 11, 2012, Pages 2116-2122

A transnational study of migration and smoking behavior in the Mexican-origin population (Article)

Tong E. , Saito N. , Tancredi D.J. , Borges G. , Kravitz R.L. , Hinton L. , Aguilar-Gaxiola S. , Medina-Mora M.E. , Breslau J.*
  • a Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, United States
  • b Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California, Davis, United States
  • c Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Davis, United States
  • d Instituto Nacional Psiquiatria Ramon de la Fuente Muniz, Mexico City, Mexico
  • e Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, United States
  • f Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Davis, United States
  • g Center for Reducing Health Disparities, University of California, Davis, United States
  • h Instituto Nacional Psiquiatria Ramon de la Fuente Muniz, Mexico City, Mexico
  • i Health/Behavioral Science Researcher, RAND Corporation, 4570 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States

Abstract

Objectives. We examined migration-related changes in smoking behavior in the transnational Mexican-origin population. Methods. We combined epidemiological surveys from Mexico (Mexican National Comorbidity Survey) and the United States (Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys). We compared 4 groups with increasing US contact with respect to smoking initiation, persistence, and daily cigarette consumption: Mexicans with no migrant in their family, Mexicans with a migrant in their family or previous migration experience, migrants, and US-born Mexican Americans. Results. Compared with Mexicans with a migrant in their family or previous migration experience, migrants were less likely to initiate smoking (odds ratio [OR] = 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.38, 0.83) and less likely to be persistent smokers (OR = 0.41; 95% CI = 0.26, 0.63). Among daily smokers, the US-born smoked more cigarettes per day than did Mexicans with a migrant in their family or previous migration experience for men (7.8 vs 6.5) and women (8.6 vs 4.3). Conclusions. Evidence suggests that smoking is suppressed among migrants relative to the broader transnational Mexican-origin population. The pattern of low daily cigarette consumption among US-born Mexican Americans, noted in previous research, represents an increase relative to smokers in Mexico.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

psychological aspect human sex difference middle aged statistics Aged ethnology Mexico United States Young Adult Humans Hispanic Adolescent smoking male Emigrants and Immigrants female Aged, 80 and over prevalence Article adult migration age Sex Factors Age Factors Mexican Americans
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84867501141&doi=10.2105%2fAJPH.2012.300739&partnerID=40&md5=be68ce3335a0be66232878efc06847ca
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.300739
ISSN: 00900036
Cited by: 13
Original Language: English