Neighborhood Ethnic Composition, Spatial Assimilation, and Change in Body Mass Index Over Time Among Hispanic and Chinese Immigrants: Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Abstract

Objectives We investigated relations between changes in neighborhood ethnic composition and changes in body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference among Chinese and Hispanic immigrants in the United States. Methods We used Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis data over a median 9-year follow-up (2000–2002 to 2010–2012) among Chinese (n = 642) and Hispanic (n = 784) immigrants aged 45 to 84 years at baseline. We incorporated information about residential moves and used econometric fixed-effects models to control for confounding by time-invariant characteristics. We characterized neighborhood racial/ethnic composition with census tract–level percentage Asian for Chinese participants and percentage Hispanic for Hispanic participants (neighborhood coethnic concentration). Results In covariate-adjusted longitudinal fixed-effects models, results suggested associations between decreasing neighborhood coethnic concentration and increasing weight, although results were imprecise: within-person BMI increases associated with an interquartile range decrease in coethnic concentration were 0.15 kilograms per meters squared (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.00, 0.30) among Chinese and 0.17 kilograms per meters squared (95% CI = −0.17, 0.51) among Hispanic participants. Results did not differ between those who did and did not move during follow-up. Conclusions Residential neighborhoods may help shape chronic disease risk among immigrants.

Simulating the Impact of Crime on African American Women's Physical Activity and Obesity

“…However, both objective and subjective measures of crime are deemed important correlates of leisure PA. We also did not examine the specific factors that contribute to the baseline probability to exercise. We also considered only one potential mechanism through which crime might influence obesity, but crime also affects obesity through changes to the food environment or through psychological stress and physiological changes . When calculating body weight changes for each woman over the course of the year, we assumed that compensatory eating did not occur (i.e., women consumed the same number of calories despite doing more PA in response to increased PA location accessibility).…”

Change in waist circumference with longer time in the United States among Hispanic and Chinese immigrants: the modifying role of the neighborhood built environment

“…However, residential environment characteristics likely contribute to variation in health patterning. Past research has linked census-derived measures of the environment to diet and anthropometric outcomes among immigrants though the evidence is mixed and the majority of studies, except for two [12, 25], are cross-sectional [18-21, 23, 24, 37]. In one longitudinal study that used built environment measures, neighborhood walkability was inversely associated with diabetes development in immigrants to Canada [26], consistent with our findings related to change in WC in Chinese immigrants.…”

“…The few studies available have reported cross-sectional associations between census tract-level foreign-born, linguistic, or Hispanic ethnic composition with healthier diets [18-20], less physical activity [20], and lower BMI [21] or higher BMI [22-24]. Only two longitudinal studies have investigated the role of contextual factors (census-derived measures of race/ethnic composition, population density, socioeconomic disadvantage; survey-based social environment measures) and change in body mass index (BMI) or waist circumference (WC) in samples including Hispanic immigrants [12, 25]. No studies to our knowledge have used food and activity-based measures of the neighborhood environment which may be more directly relevant to weight.…”

Latino Immigrants, Acculturation, and Health: Promising New Directions in Research

“…Thus, something about individuals’ place of residence contributed to the excess burden of obesity observed for some Latino subgroups. Furthermore, one of the few longitudinal studies examining weight trajectories over time by neighborhood context (69) suggests that decreasing neighborhood Latino concentration was associated with increased BMI, but associations were not statistically significant. As noted in the review by Kershaw et al (63), the more consistent set of results appears to be for smoking.…”