title: The Association of Smoking with English and Spanish Language Use as a Proxy of Acculturation Among Mexican-Americans.
abstract: To better characterize the relation of acculturation, based on language use, to smoking status among Mexican-Americans, a large study sample from an ongoing cohort of Mexican-American households in Texas was stratified into current smokers and non-smokers. Four language-use groups were created based on Low/High use of Spanish and English, representing different degrees of acculturation. Participants who reported high English but low Spanish use had the highest smoking prevalence (20.1 %), followed by High English/High Spanish (13.6 %), Low English/High Spanish (8.7 %), and Low English/Low Spanish (6.4 %). Current smokers were more likely to be male, have lower than high school education, currently consume alcohol or had consumed alcohol but quit, and report low Spanish/high English use. Consistent with recent models of acculturation, individuals can differ both in their maintenance of the native language and adoption of a new language and both dimensions are important in predicting tobacco use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Science, Unit 1330, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX, 77030, USA. itami@mdanderson.org.
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tamí-Maury
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Humboldt State University, 1 Harpst St., Arcata, CA, 95521, USA.
authors.forename: Carrie J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Aigner
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, James Madison University, 801 Carrier Dr., Harrisonburg, VA, 22807, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rush
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 3695 Cullen Blvd., Houston, TX, 77204, USA.
authors.forename: Judy H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Unit 1340, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Sara S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Strom
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Science, Unit 1330, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Prokhorov
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Science, Unit 1330, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Ellen R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Gritz
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000208:ethnology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000208:ethnology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Acculturation; Language use; Mexican-American; Smoking