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

Abstract #114043

Tamara Dubowitz, MSc, SM¹, Stephanie A. Smith-Warner, PhD², Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, PhD³, S.V. Subramanian, PhD³, and Karen E. Peterson, ScD, RD⁴. (1) Department of Maternal and Child Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue 7th floor, Boston, MA 02115, 617 432 1080, dubowitz@hsph.harvard.edu, (2) Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, (3) School of Public Health, Dept of Society, Human Development & Health, Harvard University, Kresge Building, 7th Floor, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, (4) Departments of Society, Human Development and Health and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Prevention Research Center, 677 Huntington Avenue, 7th Fl., Boston, MA 02115

We examined the associations of nativity and duration of time in the United States (U.S.) with fruit and vegetable intake among low-income postpartum women enrolled in an intervention trial to improve diet and physical activity. Interviewers administered surveys in Spanish or English to women 6 to 20 weeks post delivery, and collected measures of socioeconomic status, social support, food security and neighborhood environment. Fruit and vegetable intake was assessed with a semiquantitive food frequency questionnaire. Of the 662 women comprising our analytic sample, 72% identified with being Latina, 16% were non-Hispanic White, 7% were non-Hispanic Black and 5% categorized themselves as Asian, Mixed Heritage or of ‘other' race/ethnicity. 55% were foreign born. Among all women, average daily fruit and vegetables consumption was 5.2 (SD 3.5) servings. In the final model, adjusted for age, language acculturation, race/ethnicity, social support, household number and education level, women born in the U.S. consumed 2.5 fewer servings of fruits and vegetables per day than foreign born women who have been in the U.S. for less than four years; the difference decreased as duration of time in the United States increased. Caucasian women, compared with Latina women consumed 1 fewer serving of fruits and vegetables per day. We found no significant relationship between food security and fruit and vegetable intake in the entire sample but in stratified models, native-born women who reported less food security had a marginally significant association with higher intake of fruit and vegetables, adjusting for other covariates.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the relationship between nativity and duration of time in the United States and fruit and vegetable consumption
• Understand variables specific to nativity status associated with fruit and vegetable consumption
• Discuss policy and program implications relevant to immigrant health and diet among low-income women

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