Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #106914

Gabriel James M. Garcia, MA, MPH¹, Lourdes Cricel Molina, MPH¹, and Grace Gicaro-Torres, MD². (1) Community Health Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA 90405, 3103927642, gabrieljmgarcia@yahoo.com, (2) Department of Epidemiology, University of California Los Angeles, School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA 90405

BACKGROUND: Approximately 2.3 million Filipinos reside in the U.S., with approximately 50% residing in California, making them one of the largest Asian subgroups in the nation and the state. Since Filipinos have been immigrating to this country in substantial numbers since the early 1900's, Filipino's today are multi-generational. Unfortunately, there has been little research to understand the differences between Filipinos of varying generational status. OBJECTIVE: Our main objective was to examine whether differences exist in specific health behaviors and conditions between US-born and immigrant Filipinos. METHODS: We analyzed the 2001 Adult California Health Interview Survey, which included a sample of 978 Filipinos. ANALYSIS: We performed chi-square and t-tests to examine whether differences exist between Filipino groups of differing generational status. To determine significant predictors of specific health behaviors and conditions, we performed logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Initial findings indicate that a decreasing proportion of immigrant Filipinos reported eating 5+ servings of fruits and vegetables per week the longer their length of stay in the US, and significantly lower proportion if they are US-born. Logistic regression reveals that US-born Filipinos is 2.4 times more likely to be overweight/obese compared to their early immigrant counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: Significant differences in some health behaviors and conditions were found between US-born and immigrant Filipinos. We can only speculate as to what contributes to these differences. We conclude with a discussion of the importance of culturally-specific health promotion efforts that are sensitive to the heterogeneous Filipino population and the crucial need for a better acculturation measures.

Learning Objectives:

(
• To identify gaps in knowledge regarding the health of Filipinos (
• To recognize the importance of not treating Filipinos as a single homogenous group with regard to their health and behaviors (
• To discuss possible causes of differences and similarities in health and health behaviors of US-born and immigrant Filipinos (
• To discuss current acculturation measures for Filipinos and the need for revised acculturation tools

Keywords: Asian and Pacific Islander, Health Behavior

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation