#119 Latino ethnicity and weight status

Abstract

Abstract PURPOSE: It is well accepted that married individuals have better health than the unmarried, and that men benefit more from being married than women. The majority of studies that examine the extent to which marriage relates to health primarily focus on Whites and Blacks. However, little is known about how marital relates to health outcomes for Latinos. This research examines the association between marital status and physical health (i.e., Body Mass Index and weight gain) for Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans in the U.S. METHODS: We examined the BMI and weight change for 3,555 Mexican Americans, 1,353 Puerto Ricans and 907 Cubans ages 20 through 74 using the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES, 1982-1984). We used One-Way ANOVAS to examine the distribution of marital status by age, parity for women, socioeconomic status, (i.e., education and poverty), and cultural factors (i.e., generation status and acculturation level). We also employed multivariate analyses to estimate the association between marital status and weight net of age, parity, SES, and cultural factors. RESULTS: Married Mexican Americans have a higher BMI than their unmarried counterparts, after adjusting for the aforementioned factors. A similar pattern is found for Puerto Rican men and Cuban women. Unlike BMI, the association between marital status and weight gain is less uniform. Married Mexican American women, Puerto Rican men and Cuban women experienced more weight gain than the unmarried. For Cuban women, however, SES mediates the association between marital status and weight gain. CONCLUSION: Similar to Whites and Blacks, marital status among U.S. Latinos is independently related to the distribution of BMI and adult weight gain. Simply stated, married Latinos are at greater risk of having a higher BMI and gain more weight than their unmarried peers.