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. 2020 Mar 10;17(5):1786.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17051786.

Obesity and Obesogenic Behaviors in Asian American Children with Immigrant and US-Born Mothers

Bianca R Argueza  1   2 , Karen Sokal-Gutierrez  2 , Kristine A Madsen  2
Affiliations

Obesity and Obesogenic Behaviors in Asian American Children with Immigrant and US-Born Mothers

Bianca R Argueza et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Child obesity is understudied in Asian Americans, which include a growing population of recent immigrants. We examined the relationship between maternal nativity and time in the US, and obesity and obesogenic behaviors among Asian American children. We analyzed public-use data from the 2013-2016 California Health Interview Survey for Asian American children ages 2 to 11 years. We used logistic regression to determine the odds of obesity and obesogenic behaviors associated with maternal nativity and time in the US. This study included n = 609 children. Children of US-born mothers had lower odds of obesity (adjusted odds ratio, AOR, 0.12; 95% CI 0.02 to 0.91) and lower fruit intake (AOR 0.15, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.81) than children of recent immigrants (< 5 years in the US). Asian American children with recent immigrant mothers are more likely to be obese and eat less fruit than children with US-born mothers. Efforts to prevent obesity and increase fruit consumption are particularly important for this vulnerable population of children of recent immigrants.

Keywords: Asian American; children; immigrants; nativity; obesity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

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