Obesity and immigration in Hispanic women.

A36

Background: The prevalence of obesity is increasing and higher rates of obesity are found in Hispanics than whites. Obesity is an important risk factor for cancer. Limited previous research has found a positive association between acculturation and obesity in Hispanics. Methods: Using data collected in the Chicago Breast Health Project Phases I and II, we examined the association of obesity with language acculturation and years in the US in a sample of 388 Hispanic women. Duplicate measures of height and weight were taken and used to calculate body mass index (BMI). Women with a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 were considered obese. Women self-reported the number of years they had lived in the US. Women also reported their preferred language for reading and speaking, speaking at home, thinking and speaking with friends. This was used to calculate a language acculturation score. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between both language acculturation and years in the US with obesity. Results: Nearly all the women (98%) were born outside the US with the majority (65%) born in Mexico. Over half of the women were obese (56%). The mean number of years in the US was 17.6 years. The majority of women (69%) had the lowest possible language acculturation score, reflecting an answer of "only Spanish" on every language acculturation question. In multivariable analysis, adjusting for age, education, smoking status, hours per day spent sitting and occupational status, odds of obesity increased with years in the US (OR per year = 1.02, 95% CI 1.01-1.04). For each decade longer in the US, women were 1.25 times as likely to be obese. In contrast, language acculturation was not associated with odds of obesity (OR=1.07, 95% CI 0.97-1.17). Conclusion: Increasing years in the US increases the odds that Hispanic women will be obese. However, there is no association of obesity with language acculturation perhaps indicating mechanisms other than language are contributing to the immigration effect.