Acculturation, nutrition, and health disparities in Latinos

Abstract

Background: Latinos have become the largest minority group in the United States and will represent 25% of the US population by 2050. Latinos experience a disproportionate burden of poverty and poor health outcomes.

Objectives: We critically examined the evidence for a link between acculturation and health disparities in Latinos with a focus on type 2 diabetes (T2D) and nutrition-related risk factors and illustrated how acculturation principles can help design a culturally appropriate T2D self-management intervention in Latinos.

Design: Evidence presented in this article was drawn from 1) systematic reviews identified through PubMed searches, 2) backward searches that were based on articles cited, 3) experts in the field, and 4) the author's personal files.

Results: The preponderance of the evidence supported an association of acculturation with poor dietary quality and obesity. These associations appeared to be modified by several socioeconomic and demographic factors and were not always linear. The association between acculturation and T2D is unclear.

Conclusions: Longitudinal studies and more sophisticated analytic approaches are needed to better understand if and how acculturation affects health-disparity outcomes in Latinos. Tailoring interventions to the acculturation level of individuals is likely to help reduce health disparities in Latinos.

FIGURE 1

Adjusted mean concentrations of serum carotenoids (μg/dL) by years in the United States of foreign-born adult respondents in the 1988–1998 Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) (n = 3094). Values were adjusted for age, sex, education, race-ethnicity, BMI, alcohol consumption, physical activity, serum cotinine, serum cholesterol, and vitamin and mineral supplements. All line trends were significant. Adapted from Stimpson and Urrutia-Rojas (17).