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Adversities of acculturation? Prevalence of obesity among immigrants

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  • Neeraj Kaushal

Abstract

I study factors associated with prevalence of obesity among immigrants as the length of their stay in the US becomes longer. Using the National Health Interview Surveys for 1990–2004, I create ‘synthetic cohorts’ of immigrants that allow controlling for two important determinants of obesity: age at arrival and period of arrival in the US. I find that immigrants with a BA degree did not experience any change in obesity as their stay in the US advanced. Obesity among those without a BA degree, however, increased with duration of stay. Similarly, while some ethnic groups experienced increase in obesity with duration, others did not. For those who experienced increase in obesity with duration, the rise was higher during the first five years of residence than later and greater for those who arrived at a relatively young age. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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  • Neeraj Kaushal, 2009. "Adversities of acculturation? Prevalence of obesity among immigrants," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(3), pages 291-303, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:18:y:2009:i:3:p:291-303
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.1368
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    2. Acevedo-Garcia, Dolores & Sanchez-Vaznaugh, Emma V. & Viruell-Fuentes, Edna A. & Almeida, Joanna, 2012. "Integrating social epidemiology into immigrant health research: A cross-national framework," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2060-2068.
    3. Claire E. Altman & Jennifer Van Hook & Jonathan Gonzalez, 2017. "Becoming Overweight without Gaining a Pound: Weight Evaluations and the Social Integration of Mexicans in the United States," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 3-36, March.
    4. Annie Thomas & Alyce Ashcraft, 2013. "Type 2 Diabetes Risk among Asian Indians in the US: A Pilot Study," Nursing Research and Practice, Hindawi, vol. 2013, pages 1-8, July.
    5. Bhagyashree Katare & Timothy K. M. Beatty, 2018. "Do environmental factors drive obesity? Evidence from international graduate students," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(10), pages 1567-1593, October.
    6. Annie Ro, 2014. "The Longer You Stay, the Worse Your Health? A Critical Review of the Negative Acculturation Theory among Asian Immigrants," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-20, August.
    7. Susan Averett & Laura Argys & Jennifer Kohn, 2012. "Immigration, obesity and labor market outcomes in the UK," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-19, December.
    8. Leigh Ann Leung, 2014. "Healthy And Unhealthy Assimilation: Country Of Origin And Smoking Behavior Among Immigrants," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(12), pages 1411-1429, December.
    9. Cawley, John & Han, Euna & Norton, Edward C., 2009. "Obesity and labor market outcomes among legal immigrants to the United States from developing countries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 153-164, July.
    10. Read, Jen'nan Ghazal & West, Jessica S. & Kamis, Christina, 2020. "Immigration and health among non-Hispanic whites: The impact of arrival cohort and region of birth," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    11. Julien Teitler & Melissa Martinson & Nancy E. Reichman, 2017. "Does Life in the United States Take a Toll on Health? Duration of Residence and Birthweight among Six Decades of Immigrants," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 37-66, March.
    12. Bridget K. Gorman & Cynthia Novoa & Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, 2016. "Migration Decisions, Acculturation, and Overweight among Asian and Latino Immigrant Adults in the United States," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 728-757, September.
    13. Amy Damon & Devon Kristiansen, 2014. "Childhood obesity in Mexico: the effect of international migration," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(6), pages 711-727, November.
    14. Susan L. Averett & Laura M. Argys & Jennifer L. Kohn, 2013. "Immigrants, wages and obesity: the weight of the evidence," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 13, pages 242-256, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Rennie Lee & Laxman Bablani, 2023. "Do Asian Immigrants Have Better Mental Health? An Examination of Arrival Cohort and Gender in Australia," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(3), pages 1-29, June.
    16. Shaoqing Gong & Kesheng Wang & Ying Li & Arsham Alamian, 2019. "The influence of immigrant generation on obesity among Asian Americans in California from 2013 to 2014," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-12, February.
    17. Laura Argys, 2015. "Consequences of the obesity epidemic for immigrants," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 210-210, December.
    18. Ro, Annie & Bostean, Georgiana, 2015. "Duration of U.S. stay and body mass index among Latino and Asian immigrants: A test of theoretical pathways," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 39-47.
    19. Santosh Jatrana & Ken Richardson & Samba Siva Rao Pasupuleti, 2018. "The Effect of Nativity, Duration of Residence, and Age at Arrival on Obesity: Evidence from an Australian Longitudinal Study," VID Working Papers 1811, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
    20. Katare, Bhagyashree, 2015. "Is Obesity Contagious? Evidence from International Graduate Students (Revised)," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 199049, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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