Climbing the ladder of decline: Income and acculturation associated with chronic inflammation among Mexican immigrants.

Abstract

Financial hardship and immigrant status are often associated with poorer health as immigrant groups acculturate to life in the US. Known as the Latino health paradox, studies have shown that Latino/a immigrants in particular often experience declines in health the more they embrace ways of life considered "dominant" by US society. At present, critical biological pathways linking socioeconomic and acculturative processes remain to be better explained. The present study investigates associations among financial strain, acculturation, and chronic inflammation. In our study of 129 Mexican-born immigrants living in the US, we used Pearson's correlations and multiple regression analyses to investigate links among income-to-poverty ratio (an indicator of financial strain), English language engagement (acculturation), and C-reactive protein (CRP), a measure of systemic inflammation. Results showed that for men, but not women, acculturation as defined by English language engagement moderated the association between an income-to-poverty ratio and CRP levels. Consistent with the Latino health paradox, more acculturated men with relatively higher income levels (compared with the study sample) had significantly higher levels of CRP.