Risk Factors for Overweight and Obesity among Mexican Children in New York

Esperanza Tuñón-Pablos,Joanna Dreby

doi:10.1155/2016/2420167

Abstract

This paper analyses the risk factors for being overweight or obese among the children of Mexican migrants in the United States. It draws on a qualitative study consisting of in-depth interviews and participant observation with 30 parents in New York State. Findings indicate risks related to nutritional deficiencies and food insecurity before migration, adaptation to US lifestyles, and the cultural tendency to value being overweight as a sign of greater health and higher socioeconomic status. Findings also show that mothers use various strategies to resist the excessive consumption of fast food, yet they simultaneously experience dilemmas around the family’s consumption due to the gender norm that women are responsible for children’s diet.

Highlights

Obesity is one of the principle risk factors of diabetes, which is one of the most significant health problems in the world today
This study qualitatively explores the various risk factors for becoming overweight or obese among a specific group of Latinos in the United States: Mexican migrant families
In order to understand the complexity of changing food habits of Mexican migrants in the United States and the possible relationship with problems of overweight and obesity, we must consider gender, class, ethnicity, migratory status, and their intersections

Summary

Introduction

Obesity is one of the principle risk factors of diabetes, which is one of the most significant health problems in the world today. It has been shown that genetics contribute to the obesity epidemic, it is impossible that in only 30 years genetic changes have been significant enough to fully explain the rate of growth in obesity levels worldwide. Contributing to the worldwide intergenerational obesity epidemic are various other factors, those that are physiological, familial, social, economic, cultural, and political in origin [4, 5]. These factors help to explain changes in diet over the past thirty years, the decrease in fiber consumption and the increase in the consumption of fats and refined sugars

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion