258310 Towards a better understanding of young Latino children's obesity: The importance of socioeconomic status, home language, TV watching, and physical activity

Monday, October 29, 2012

Sergio Prada, PhD , PROESA - Research Center for Social Protection and Health Economics, Universidad Icesi, Cali, Colombia
Claudia Galindo, PhD , Department of Language, Literacy, and Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD
The incidence of Latino obesity is alarming. Among 5-year-old children, 16% of Latinos are obese compared with 10% of Whites. Obesity disparities between White and Latino children increase significantly with age. In this paper, we examined the importance of socioeconomic status (SES) and home language for explaining obesity disparities between White and Latino children. We also studied the association of physical activity and TV watching with obesity. We used a nationally representative sample of roughly 10,000 5-year-olds drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (Latinos, 30% and Whites, 70%). We estimated logistic regression models with adjusted standard errors for the complex sampling design of the ECLS-K using svy commands in Stata-12. We found that socioeconomic status and home language are statistically significant associated with obesity. Comparing to children living in English-speaking homes, children living in Spanish-speaking homes are 1.4 times more likely to be obese (p < .001). Also, the higher the SES, the less likely a child is to be obese (odds ratio=1.3, p < .001). After controlling for SES and home language, physical activity has a negative association (odds ratio=0.8, p < .05) and TV watching has a positive association with obesity (odds ratio=1.3, p < .05). When accounting for these variables, obesity disparities between White and Latino children become statistically non-significant. TV watching and physical activity of 5-year-old have lasting effects on obesity even when children become 8-year-olds. Findings from this study could help develop interventions to significantly reduce the young Latino children obesity epidemic.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Diversity and culture
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe and quantify the association of physical activity and TV watching with obesity in early grades between latinos and white children.

Keywords: Obesity, Child Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been working with the ECLS-K database for over 4 years now, and know very well its pros and cons. I have strong quantitative skills, and a PhD in Public Policy with emphasis on Evaluation and Analytic Methods. My coauthor is principal investigator in a RWJ Grant on Latino Children and Obesity.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3400.0: Obesity, food environments and health disparities