title: Neighborhood socioeconomic status and BMI differences by immigrant and legal status: evidence from Utah.
abstract: We build on recent work examining the BMI patterns of immigrants in the US by distinguishing between legal and undocumented immigrants. We find that undocumented women have relative odds of obesity that are about 10 percentage points higher than for legal immigrant women, and their relative odds of being overweight are about 40 percentage points higher. We also find that the odds of obesity and overweight status vary less across neighborhoods for undocumented women than for legal immigrant women. These patterns are not found among immigrant men: undocumented men have lower rates of obesity (by about 6 percentage points in terms of relative odds) and overweight (by about 12 percentage points) than do legal immigrant men, and there is little variation in the impact of neighborhood context across groups of men. We interpret these findings in terms of processes of acculturation among immigrant men and women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Utah, United States. Electronic address: ming.wen@soc.utah.edu.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Utah, 260 South Central Campus Drive, Room 343, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, United States. Electronic address: maloney@economics.utah.edu.
authors.forename: Thomas N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Maloney
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D015992:Body Mass Index; D004282:Documentation; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000208:ethnology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000208:ethnology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000145:classification* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012923:Social Class; D014589:Utah / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Health; Hispanics; Immigrant; Latinos; Neighborhood; Obesity