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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: AJPH.2007.122754v1 98/11/1971    most recent Submit a response Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Barger, S. D. Articles by Gallo, L. C. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Barger, S. D. Articles by Gallo, L. C. Related Collections Obesity, Overweight, Underweight Hispanics/Latinos Socioeconomic Factors Immigration Surveys Other Tobacco

Steven D. Barger, PhD and Linda C. Gallo, PhD

Steven D. Barger is with the Department of Psychology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. Linda C. Gallo is with the Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego State University and University of California, San Diego.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Steven D. Barger, PhD, Department of Psychology, Northern Arizona University, PO Box 15106, Flagstaff, AZ 86011 (e-mail: steven.barger{at}nau.edu).

Objectives. We examined the relationship between ethnic self-identification and the partitioning of health risk within a Mexican American population.

Methods. We combined data from the 2000 to 2002 National Health Interview Surveys to obtain a large (N = 10 044) sample of US residents of Mexican ancestry. We evaluated health risk, defined as self-reported current smoking, overweight, and obesity, and compared the predictive strength of health risk correlates across self-identified Mexican and Mexican American participants.

Results. Self-identified Mexican participants were less likely to smoke (odds ratio [OR] = 0.70; 95% confidence interval[CI] = 0.60, 0.83; P < .001) and to be obese (OR = 0.66; 95% CI = 0.56, 0.77; P < .001) than were self-identified Mexican American participants. Within-group analyses found that sociodemographic predictors had inconsistent and even contradictory patterns of association with health risk across the 2 subgroups. Health risk was consistently lower among immigrants relative to US-born participants. Ethnic self-identification effects were independent of socioeconomic status.

Conclusions. US residents of Mexican ancestry showed substantial within-group differences in health risk and risk correlates. Ethnic self-identification is a promising strategy to clarify differential risk and may help resolve apparent discrepancies in health risk correlates in this literature.