Acculturation and its association with health-risk behaviors in a rural Latina population.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the performance of proxy measures of acculturation and to examine the association between acculturation and selected health-risk behaviors.


METHODS
Participants were 1062 Latina pregnant women who received prenatal care at clinics in San Joaquin County, California between 1999 and 2001. We used the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve to characterize the sensitivity and specificity of proxy measures and regression analysis to examine health-risk behaviors.


RESULTS
Using the ARSMA-II short version scale as a reference, age at immigration had the highest percentage of correctly classified individuals. Acculturation was significantly associated with a lifetime history of substance use, risky sexual behavior, low fruit consumption, and high fast-food meal consumption.


CONCLUSIONS
Acculturation is an important predictor of health-risk behavior among women. Further research is needed to better understand the phenomenon and to avert associated adverse health consequences.
Kasirye
Olivia C
OC
Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California, Davis 95616-8638, USA.
Walsh
Julia A
JA
Romano
Patrick S
PS
Beckett
Laurel A
LA
Garcia
Jorge A
JA
Elvine-Kreis
Brenda
B
Bethel
Jeffrey W
JW
Schenker
Marc B
MB
D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002140:California; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016015:Logistic Models; D008429:Maternal Welfare; D011247:Pregnancy; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012423:Rural Health