Allen Jennifer Dacey, Caspi Caitlin, Yang May, Leyva Bryan, Stoddard Anne M, Tamers Sara, Tucker-Seeley Reginald D, Sorensen Glorian C
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA.
University of Minnesota, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2014 Dec;123:26-36. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.034. Epub 2014 Oct 18.
Acculturation may influence health behaviors, yet mechanisms underlying its effect are not well understood. In this study, we describe relationships between acculturation and health behaviors among low-income housing residents, and examine whether these relationships are mediated by social and contextual factors. Residents of 20 low-income housing sites in the Boston metropolitan area completed surveys that assessed acculturative characteristics, social/contextual factors, and health behaviors. A composite acculturation scale was developed using latent class analysis, resulting in four distinct acculturative groups. Path analysis was used to examine interrelationships between acculturation, health behaviors, and social/contextual factors, specifically self-reported social ties, social support, stress, material hardship, and discrimination. Of the 828 respondents, 69% were born outside of the U.S. Less acculturated groups exhibited healthier dietary practices and were less likely to smoke than more acculturated groups. Acculturation had a direct effect on diet and smoking, but not physical activity. Acculturation also showed an indirect effect on diet through its relationship with material hardship. Our finding that material hardship mediated the relationship between acculturation and diet suggests the need to explicate the significant role of financial resources in interventions seeking to promote healthy diets among low-income immigrant groups. Future research should examine these social and contextual mediators using larger, population-based samples, preferably with longitudinal data.
文化适应可能会影响健康行为，但其影响背后的机制尚未得到充分理解。在本研究中，我们描述了低收入住房居民的文化适应与健康行为之间的关系，并考察这些关系是否由社会和环境因素介导。波士顿大都市区20个低收入住房小区的居民完成了评估文化适应特征、社会/环境因素和健康行为的调查。使用潜在类别分析开发了一个综合文化适应量表，结果产生了四个不同的文化适应群体。路径分析用于考察文化适应、健康行为和社会/环境因素之间的相互关系，特别是自我报告的社会关系、社会支持、压力、物质困难和歧视。在828名受访者中，69%出生在美国境外。文化适应程度较低的群体表现出更健康的饮食习惯，并且比文化适应程度较高的群体吸烟的可能性更小。文化适应对饮食和吸烟有直接影响，但对体育活动没有影响。文化适应还通过与物质困难的关系对饮食产生间接影响。我们发现物质困难介导了文化适应与饮食之间的关系，这表明有必要阐明财政资源在旨在促进低收入移民群体健康饮食的干预措施中的重要作用。未来的研究应该使用更大的基于人群的样本，最好是纵向数据，来考察这些社会和环境中介因素。
