American Journal of Public Health
Volume 105, Issue 7, 2015, Pages 1460-1467

The interaction between an individual's acculturation and community factors on physical inactivity and obesity: A multilevel analysis (Article)

Shi L. , Zhang D.* , Van Meijgaard J. , MacLeod K.E. , Fielding J.E.
  • a Department of Public Health Science, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, United States
  • b Department of Health Policy and Management, University of California, Center for Health Advancement, 650 Charles Young Dr. S, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, United States
  • c Department of Health Policy and Management, University of California, Center for Health Advancement, 650 Charles Young Dr. S, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, United States
  • d Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States
  • e Department of Health Policy and Management, University of California, Center for Health Advancement, 650 Charles Young Dr. S, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, United States

Abstract

Objectives. We examined whether the interactions between primarily speaking English at home and community-level measures (median household income and immigrant composition) are associated with physical inactivity and obesity. Methods. We pooled the 2005 and 2007 Los Angeles County Health Survey data to construct a multilevel data set, with community-level median household income and immigrant density as predictors at the community level. After controlling for individual-level demographic variables, we included the respondent's perceived community safety as a covariate to test the hypothesis that perceived public safety mediates the association between acculturation and health outcomes. Results. The interaction between community median household income and primarily speaking English at home was associated with lower likelihoods of physical inactivity (odds ratio [OR] = 0.644; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.502, 0.825) and obesity (OR = 0.674; 95% CI = 0.514, 0.882). These odds remained significant after we controlled for perceived community safety. Conclusions. Resources in higher-income areas may be beneficial only to residents fully integrated into the community. Future research could focus on understanding how linguistic isolation affects community-level social learning and access to resources and whether this differs by family-level acculturation.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

statistics and numerical data male Emigrants and Immigrants obesity Acculturation female Aged Motor Activity Humans cultural factor Los Angeles United States Young Adult human adult migrant middle aged Adolescent
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84930837721&doi=10.2105%2fAJPH.2014.302541&partnerID=40&md5=589d021a2878dd49af79795b930e760e
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302541
ISSN: 00900036
Cited by: 8
Original Language: English