Transnational, social, and neighborhood ties and smoking among Latino immigrants: Does gender matter?

Objectives: We examined whether different markers of social ties theoretically relevant for immigrant health— transnational ties (i.e., economic remittances, number of return visits), social ties (i.e., friend support, family support), and neighborhood ties (i.e., neighborhood cohesion) — were independently associated with current smoking status. We also tested interactions to determine whether these associations were moderated by gender. Methods: We conducted a series of weighted logistic regression analyses using the Latino immigrant subsample (n = 1,629) of the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). Results: Number of past-year return visits to the country-of-origin was positively associated with current smoker status. Gender moderated the association between economic remittances, friend support, and smoking. Remittance behavior had a protective association with smoking, and this association was particularly pronounced for Latino immigrant women. Friendship support lowered the odds of smoking among men, but not women. Conclusions: Our results underscore the growing importance of transnational networks for understanding Latino immigrant health and the gendered patterns of the associations between social resources and health risk behaviors.