Citation

Yu SM, Lin SC, Adirim T. ISRN Pediatr. 2013; 2013: 164757.

Affiliation

Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, Room 18A-55, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Hindawi Publishing)

DOI

10.1155/2013/164757

PMID

23936667

Abstract

Using the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health (N = 91,532), we studied the relationship between the joint effects of immigrant family type (foreign-born children, US-born children/one foreign-born parent, US-born children/both foreign-born parents, and US-born children/US-born parents) and race/ethnicity on various health measures (parent-reported physical and dental health, obesity/overweight, breast-feeding, school absence, injury, and chronic condition). We used weighted logistic regression to examine the independent effects of the 12-level joint variable on various health status measures while controlling for confounding factors. Overall, nearly one-third of families with both foreign-born parents were poor, and one-quarter of the parents in these households did not complete high school. Compared with non-Hispanic White US-born children, multivariable analyses indicate that all Hispanic children have higher odds of obesity, poor physical and dental health, with Hispanic foreign-born children 7 times as likely to report poor/fair physical health. Most children of immigrant parents were more likely to have been breast-fed and less likely to miss school more than 11 days. Child age and household poverty status were independently associated with most of the health status measures. Combined race/ethnicity and immigrant family type categories have heterogeneous associations with each health outcome measure examined. Culturally competent interventions and policies should be developed to serve these expanding communities.

Language: en