Predictors of Overweight in Latino Children: Acculturation as a Moderator of the Relationship between Food Insecurity and Body Mass Index Percentile

Background: Acculturation, or the process of adjusting to a new culture, describes social, psychological, and behavioral changes that an individual undergoes as result of immigration. Across studies, evidence supports the hypothesis that as Latino immigrants acculturate to the United States, their rates of overweight and obesity tend to increase. Although studies of Latino children have yielded similar findings, it is unclear whether food insecurity, a variable associated with overweight, interacts with acculturation to place children at increased risk.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess how food insecurity interacts with acculturation to place Latino children at increased risk for the development of overweight.

Design/Methods: Latino children ages 2-17 (n = 63) from both Spanish and English speaking families were recruited from a primary care clinic serving low income families. Child anthropometric measures (height and weight) and parent acculturation and food insecurity measures were collected by self-administered questionnaires in the clinic waiting room.

Results: Over 63% of the patients were either at risk for overweight or overweight according to criteria established by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with most of these patients in the Spanish-speaking Latino group. Regression analysis revealed acculturation as a significant moderating variable between food insecurity and BMI percentile, F(5,17) = 4.836, p = .017, R2 = .707.

Conclusions: The identification of the relationship between acculturation, food insecurity and childhood overweight may serve to facilitate in the delivery of future weight-gain prevention interventions programs within primary care settings.