Rurality and ethnicity in adolescent physical illness: are children of the growing rural Latino population at excess health risk?
OBJECTIVE
This study's objectives are to: investigate potential additive and multiplicative influences of rurality and race/ethnicity on chronic physical illness in a nationally representative sample of youth; and examine intra-Latino processes using a Latino sub-sample. Specifically, we examine how rurality and individual psychosocial processes reflected by acculturation proxies (generational status and use of the English language at home) link to chronic physical illness of Latino youth. Finally, we examine whether these associations and the levels of chronic illness differ across Latino subgroups.


METHODS
Logistic-normal (binomial) modeling analyses examine multilevel influences on physical health using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample (N = 13,905) of white, African American, Latino, Asian, and Native American adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 participating in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.


RESULTS
Prevalence rates of certain chronic illnesses (obesity, asthma, and high cholesterol) among Latino adolescents exceed rates for the same illnesses among white adolescents. Comparisons between rural and non-rural youth reveal a rurality disadvantage in terms of any chronic illness likelihood among Latino, Asian, and Native American youth not evident among whites or African Americans. Among Latino youth (N = 2,505), Mexican Americans show lower health risk for any chronic illness compared to other Latino groups. However, third generation Latinos and those who primarily speak English at home experience higher risk for any chronic illness than do those of first or second generation status, with amplification of the risk linked to English use at home among Latino youth living in rural areas.
Wickrama
K A S
KA
Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50010, USA. s2kas@iastate.edu
Elder
Glen H
GH
Todd Abraham
W
W
D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000367:Age Factors; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000145:classification*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012423:Rural Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data