Acculturation and low-birthweight infants among Latino women: a reanalysis of HHANES data with structural equation models.

Previous studies have demonstrated that acculturation is associated with negative birth outcomes among mothers in numerous immigrant populations, including Latinas. This study used structural equation models to reanalyze data employed in the 1989 Scribner and Dwyer study on the effect of acculturation (measured through the Cuellar scale) on mothers' low-birthweight status. Data revealed that language components dominate the effects of acculturation on low-birthweight status. Acculturuation appears to affect low-birthweight status indirectly through smoking and dietary intake but not through parity. Acculturation has a persistent direct effect on low-birthweight status, suggesting that other intervening variables are operant.

[1]  M S Kramer,et al.  Determinants of low birth weight: methodological assessment and meta-analysis. , 1987, Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

[2]  Kenneth A. Bollen,et al.  Structural Equations with Latent Variables , 1989 .

[3]  R. Scribner.  Paradox as paradigm--the health outcomes of Mexican Americans. , 1996, American journal of public health.

[4]  W. P. Frisbie,et al.  Racial and ethnic differences in determinants of intrauterine growth retardation and other compromised birth outcomes. , 1997, American journal of public health.

[5]  R. Scribner,et al.  Acculturation and low birthweight among Latinos in the Hispanic HANES. , 1989, American journal of public health.

[6]  G. Marks,et al.  Health risk behaviors of Hispanics in the United States: findings from HHANES, 1982-84. , 1990, American journal of public health.

[7]  S. Guendelman,et al.  Dietary intake among Mexican-American women: generational differences and a comparison with white non-Hispanic women. , 1995, American journal of public health.

[8]  L. Suarez.  Pap smear and mammogram screening in Mexican-American women: the effects of acculturation. , 1994, American journal of public health.

[9]  E. Perez-stable,et al.  Cigarette smoking among San Francisco Hispanics: the role of acculturation and gender. , 1989, American journal of public health.

[10]  N. Collins,et al.  Prenatal health behaviors and psychosocial risk factors in pregnant women of Mexican origin: the role of acculturation. , 1997, American journal of public health.