title: Transnational, social, and neighborhood ties and smoking among Latino immigrants: does gender matter?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined whether transnational ties, social ties, and neighborhood ties were independently associated with current smoking status among Latino immigrants. We also tested interactions to determine whether these associations were moderated by gender.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a series of weighted logistic regression analyses (i.e., economic remittances, number of return visits, friend support, family support, and neighborhood cohesion) using the Latino immigrant subsample (n = 1629) of the National Latino and Asian American Study in 2002 and 2003.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of past-year return visits to the country-of-origin was positively associated with current smoker status. Gender moderated the association between economic remittances, friend support, and smoking. Remittance behavior had a protective association with smoking, and this association was particularly pronounced for Latino immigrant women. Friendship support lowered the odds of smoking among men, but not women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results underscore the growing importance of transnational networks for understanding Latino immigrant health and the gendered patterns of the associations between social ties, transnational ties, and health risk behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Carmela Alcántara is with the Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY. Kristine M. Molina is with the Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago. Ichiro Kawachi is with the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Carmela
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alcántara
authors.forename: Kristine M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Molina
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kawachi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D015438:Health Behavior; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000208:ethnology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors