Acculturation, Race/Ethnicity, and Health Behaviors

Abstract

Our study aim was to test whether three commonly-used measures of acculturation, or simple race and ethnicity, were more accurate in predicting three specific health behaviors. “Acculturation” variables included a) citizenship status (native-born US citizen, naturalized citizen, non-citizen), b) years of residence in the USA, and c) language spoken during the interview, and that reported to be spoken at home. The health behaviors examined were a) receiving an annual flu vaccination, b) current smoker or “never having smoked” status, and c) (not) drinking more than four alcoholic beverages at one time on a daily or weekly basis (“binge drinking”). Data from the 2011 – 2019 California Health Interview Surveys (CHIS) indicate that Asian race was a positive predictor of all three health behaviors. Whites, Hispanics and African-Americans demonstrated similar positive behaviors, but specifically in regards to flu vaccinations, never having smoked status, and (no) binge drinking, respectively. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses indicate that citizenship status, and years of residency in the USA for non-citizens, did not predict these same behaviors. Findings indicate that language may be significant, but mainly as a proxy for race and ethnicity, rather than as an acculturation component. Responses from those who spoke Spanish or an Asian language offered in CHIS, for example, were largely consistent with those from Hispanic and Asian participants, respectively. Responses to the same questions from those who spoke an Asian language a) during the interview and b) reportedly at home, were not always consistent, however, and warrant further investigation. It is also possible that the relatively small number of CHIS survey language choices may limit diversity and representation in the study population, and affect findings using these data. Those who do not speak English, Spanish, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Korean, Tagalog or Vietnamese are presumably excluded from this study, although their data in terms of language, race and ethnicity would seem highly relevant and valuable. Because CHIS is limited to California, we recommend future research using nationwide data that considers other acculturation components, and includes ethnic and cultural subgroups, and bi- and multi-racial populations. Keywords: Acculturation, immigrant, health behaviors, race, ethnicity, CHIS, language