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1 Department of Family Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston
2 Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Epidemiology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Arch G. Mainous III, PhD, Department of Family Medicine Medical, University of South Carolina, 295 Calhoun St, Charleston, SC 29425, mainouag{at}musc.edu
| ABSTRACT |
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METHODS We studied Latino adults (aged
20 years) with previously diagnosed diabetes in the 1999–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (unweighted N = 467; weighted N = 1,957,778). Healthy lifestyle habits were those consistent with recommendations of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) regarding exercise, smoking, obesity, and diet. Acculturation was measured with the Short Acculturation Scale, a validated 5-item scale assessing use of the Spanish language. Logistic regression analyses of acculturation and healthy behaviors were computed controlling for access to care, demographics, and disease characteristics.
RESULTS In bivariate analyses, compared with their less-acculturated counterparts, individuals who were more-acculturated to any extent were less likely to have a higher fiber intake (9.4% vs 35.4%, P = .001) and lower saturated fat intake (17.2% vs 46.5%, P = .03). More-acculturated individuals were more likely to report leisure time exercise (59.2% vs 19.3%, P <.001), whereas the proportion of individuals who smoked did not differ. In logistic regression analyses using the 1994 ADA dietary guidelines, more-acculturated individuals were less likely than their less-acculturated counterparts to meet dietary criteria for saturated fat consumption (odds ratio, 0.13; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.04–0.41). When using the stricter 2006 ADA dietary guidelines, more-acculturated individuals were less likely to have recommended consumption of both saturated fat (odds ratio, 0.06; 95% CI, 0.02–0.20) and fiber (odds ratio, 0.19; 95% CI, 0.08–0.48). Acculturation did not significantly influence exercise and smoking status in logistic regression analyses.
CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that acculturation among diabetic Latinos to the general US culture is associated with adoption of some less desirable dietary habits.
Key Words: Acculturation culture Latinos immigrants diabetes mellitus lifestyle health behavior diet exercise
| INTRODUCTION |
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The US Census indicates that 14.5% of adult US residents are foreign-born.10 These immigrants, particularly minorities, may require interventions and modifications to the standard health care delivery system that differ from those of their ethnic counterparts who are born in the United States. Differences in diabetes prevalence and care among ethnic subgroups are associated with degree of acculturation.11,12 For example, Latinos who are less acculturated to the majority US culture tend to have a higher prevalence of diabetes and more complications.11,13
One aspect of successful diabetes management takes place outside of the physicians office and entails the patient adopting a healthy lifestyle. For patients with diabetes, a healthy lifestyle includes an appropriate diet and exercise.14,15 These self-management behaviors related to lifestyle may be particularly influenced by culturally specific attitudes and beliefs.16–18 In particular, some data suggest that acculturation for the general population of Latinos has been associated with suboptimal lifestyle choices, including a low intake of fruits and vegetables, a higher consumption of fats, and smoking.19 Acculturation among Latinos with diabetes to the mainstream US culture may thus influence the healthiness of their lifestyle, particularly depending on whether the mainstream society has a healthy lifestyle. The purpose of this study was to examine the association of acculturation with a healthy lifestyle among Latinos with diabetes in the United States.
| METHODS |
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Sample
The individuals analyzed in our study were Latino adults (aged
20 years) with previously diagnosed diabetes. The NHANES contains a series of questions asked to ascertain an individuals race and ethnicity. Race and Hispanic ethnicity were addressed in separate questions. Latinos were the only group asked questions on language, allowing for assessments of acculturation. Interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish by trained bilingual interviewers. Respondents were free to switch between languages during the interview depending on which language they were most comfortable with in answering each question. Individuals were considered to have previously diagnosed diabetes if they answered affirmatively to a question of "Has a doctor ever told you that you have diabetes?" Analyses were based on 467 individuals, who represented a US population of 1,957,778.
Measures
Acculturation Status
Acculturation is an indication of the cultural change of minority individuals to the majority culture. Acculturation measures vary widely depending on the construct used. We used 2 general constructs available in the NHANES 1999–2004 to assess acculturation: language and country of birth. Both of these have been used previously as proxies for acculturation.21–23
The degree of acculturation based on language was assessed using the Short Acculturation Scale (SAS), a 5-item scale measuring use of the Spanish language that has good internal reliability (Cronbach
0.90) and has been shown to be comparable to longer published acculturation scales. This scale has been validated in several Hispanic populations, with correlations seen between measured acculturation and number of generations living in the United States, length of time lived in the United States, age at the time of arrival in the United States, and self-reported acculturation.24 The scale consists of the following 5 questions: (1) In general, what language do you read and speak? (2) What was the language(s) you used as a child? (3) What language(s) do you usually speak at home? (4) In which language(s) do you usually think? and (5) What language(s) do you usually speak with your friends? The options for answering each question are "only Spanish," "more Spanish than English," "both equally," "more English than Spanish," and "only English." These responses were each scored on a scale from 0 to 4, yielding a total score ranging from 0 to 20, with higher scores signifying greater acculturation. The acculturation score was used to define 5 categories representing a continuum of acculturation from Spanish language only (a score of 0), primarily Spanish (1–5), about equal use of Spanish and English (6–10), primarily English (11–15), and nearly all English (16–20). Because of the small size of the group with previously diagnosed diabetes, we classified their acculturation simply as any (1–20) vs none (0).
Healthy Lifestyle
Measures of healthy lifestyle included smoking, obesity, exercise, and diet. Current smoking status was ascertained. Individuals with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m2 or greater were considered obese, and those with a BMI from 25.0 to 29.9 kg/m2 were considered overweight. Individuals were asked whether they participated in vigorous or moderate levels of leisure time physical activity; those who reported neither vigorous nor moderate physical activities were categorized as getting no exercise, whereas those who reported either or both were categorized as getting exercise. Respondents diets were evaluated according to whether they met the 1994 ADA guidelines for individuals with diabetes in terms of daily fiber intake (
20 g), cholesterol intake (
300 mg), and saturated fat intake (<10% of total calories).25 In addition, their diets were also assessed according to the 2006 ADA guidelines for fiber intake (
14 g per 1,000 total calories), cholesterol intake (<200 mg), and saturated fat intake (<7% of total calories) because these guidelines are more restrictive and are recommended based on current knowledge.26
Demographic Characteristics and Access to Care
We included the following demographic characteristics of respondents: sex, age (20–64 vs
65 years), poverty-income ratio (<1.0 vs
1.0), and education (high school graduate vs not). Access to care was assessed from whether the respondent had health insurance and a routine place for health care.
Analysis
Because the NHANES has a complex sampling design that makes the resulting sample representative of the noninstitutionalized US population, we were able to make nationally representative estimates. We used SUDAAN software (RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) to account for the weighting and complex sampling design. We performed
2 tests for bivariate relationships between acculturation, as measured both by the SAS score and by country of birth, and lifestyle measures.
We conducted multivariate analyses to investigate the relative odds that individuals with any level of acculturation (SAS score >0) practiced healthy habits, such as not smoking, getting exercise, and eating a healthy diet. Logistic regression analyses were computed and controlled for the potential confounding variables of age, sex, poverty, education, health insurance, having a routine place for care, number of years with diabetes, and having been told by a physician that one has retinopathy, hypertension, or high cholesterol. The ADA recommendations have recently changed regarding some dietary aspects of a healthy lifestyle, so we examined the relationship between acculturation and diet with both the recommendations in place at the time of data collection (1994 ADA guidelines) and the current recommendations (2006 ADA guidelines). Because socioeconomic status could potentially modify the relationship between acculturation and lifestyle, we investigated interaction effects between health insurance, poverty, and education and the SAS score in the models.
| RESULTS |
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The relationships between the lifestyle characteristics and socioeconomic measures are shown in Table 2
. The only significant differences were that compared with individuals who had graduated from high school, those who had not were less likely to exercise in their leisure time and more likely to have diets low in cholesterol and saturated fat.
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| DISCUSSION |
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Acculturation has been linked to the likelihood of developing diabetes, as well as to quality of care, with more-acculturated individuals receiving better care.8,13 Little research has focused on the impact of acculturation on diet among Latinos with diabetes, however. Delivery of culturally competent health care by professionals has been discussed at length, but evidence suggests that self-management of diabetes in modern US society may be difficult for Latino patients as they struggle to decide which traditional behaviors to retain and which new ones to adopt.28
Our findings suggest that an understanding of the complexities in providing culturally competent care must include an understanding not just of where the patient is coming from culturally, but where they are now. Having a medical home with continuity of care may help to ensure that the patient-physician relationship is intact and that the physician can understand factors that may be changing in the patients ability to adhere to treatment or lifestyle recommendations. Consequently, an initial lack of health insurance or disruption of health insurance coverage is a big problem in socially disadvantaged populations because of its impact on this continuity and having a medical home, and corresponding delivery of quality care.30
There are several limitations to this study. First, the data set is cross-sectional, which limits the ability to make inferences about causality. The NHANES data do, however, allow us to generate population estimates for Latinos with diabetes in the US population. Second, we used both a general measure of acculturation (being born in the United States) and a standard scale that represents acculturation based on language (SAS score), and the latter was significantly associated with several indicators of healthy lifestyle. It is possible, however, that because acculturation includes multiple factors regarding behaviors and beliefs, our measure was too crude and simplistic to appropriately capture nuances of culture. Third, the question regarding physician-diagnosed diabetes, which was the basis for including individuals in the study, does not discriminate between individuals told that they had type 1 diabetes and individuals told that they had type 2 diabetes; however, the lifestyle questions we used are applicable to individuals with either type of diabetes. Fourth, although the NHANES allowed us to look at the current behaviors and acculturation of Latinos generally, the survey questions were limited regarding background characteristics of the subset of Latino immigrants. Consequently, we were unable to investigate questions such as whether immigrants from rural areas of Mexico differ in their behaviors from those hailing from urban areas. Fifth, in the bivariate analyses, more-acculturated individuals were more likely to engage in leisure time exercise than their less-acculturated counterparts. This finding does not necessarily mean that less-acculturated individuals do not engage in exercise, but rather that they may not use their leisure time for exercise. Individuals working in more physical and manual labor occupations may seek out less vigorous leisure time pursuits. For many, the importance of exercising after work may take a lower priority than resting from a workday considerably longer than 8 hours that involves physical activity. Even though we could not measure exercise obtained during leisure time vs on the job, once we controlled for demographic characteristics, the relationship between acculturation and leisure time exercise was no longer significant.
In conclusion, the common assumption that ethnic minority populations will always benefit from acculturation to mainstream US society does not appear to hold true in the case of healthy lifestyle behaviors among Latinos with diabetes. This study adds to other evidence that aspects of acculturation may be maladaptive.19 Dietary habits of Latinos with diabetes who are less-acculturated to US society are healthier than those of Latinos who are more-acculturated. It is important to understand the complex process of acculturation as we focus on developing culturally sensitive health care programs, in order to encourage patients to maintain healthy traditional behaviors while simultaneously adopting beneficial aspects of the mainstream culture.
| FOOTNOTES |
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Funding support: This project was supported in part by grant 1 P30AG021677 from the National Institute on Aging and by grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Received for publication July 5, 2007. Revision received September 21, 2007. Accepted for publication October 8, 2007.
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