Abdulrahim Sawsan, Baker Wayne
American University of Beirut, Faculty of Health Sciences, Beirut, Lebanon.
Soc Sci Med. 2009 Jun;68(12):2097-103. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.04.017. Epub 2009 May 14.
Arab Americans are a growing minority in the U.S., yet only a few studies have examined their health utilizing representative samples. Using data from the 2003 Detroit Arab American Study, which is based on a probability sample, we examined the self-rated health (SRH) of Arab Americans by two measures of acculturation--immigrant status and language preference. We specified logistic regression models to test whether immigrants report better or poorer health status compared to U.S.-born Arab Americans and whether language preference among the immigrant generation accounts for the association between immigrant status and SRH. Our findings reveal that the health status of Arab Americans improves with acculturation. Arab immigrants are more likely to report poorer SRH compared to U.S.-born Arab Americans. When language preference is taken into account, Arabic-speaking immigrants are more likely to report poorer SRH compared to both U.S.-born Arab Americans and to English-speaking immigrants. We discuss these findings in light of similar ones obtained in the literature on SRH among other immigrant groups in the U.S. We conclude by arguing that language is an important measure to include in SRH studies among Arab Americans as well as other non-English speaking ethnic groups.
阿拉伯裔美国人在美国是一个不断壮大的少数族裔，但仅有少数研究利用具有代表性的样本对他们的健康状况进行过调查。我们使用基于概率抽样的2003底特律阿拉伯裔美国人研究的数据，通过两种文化适应衡量标准——移民身份和语言偏好，来研究阿拉伯裔美国人的自评健康状况（SRH）。我们指定了逻辑回归模型，以检验与在美国出生的阿拉伯裔美国人相比，移民报告的健康状况是更好还是更差，以及移民一代中的语言偏好是否能解释移民身份与自评健康状况之间的关联。我们的研究结果表明，阿拉伯裔美国人的健康状况随着文化适应而改善。与在美国出生的阿拉伯裔美国人相比，阿拉伯移民更有可能报告较差的自评健康状况。当考虑语言偏好时，与在美国出生的阿拉伯裔美国人以及说英语的移民相比，说阿拉伯语的移民更有可能报告较差的自评健康状况。我们根据在美国其他移民群体中关于自评健康状况的文献中获得的类似研究结果来讨论这些发现。我们最后指出，语言是阿拉伯裔美国人以及其他非英语族裔的自评健康状况研究中需要纳入的一项重要衡量标准。
