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Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health
Published in: Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 5/2012

01-10-2012 | Original Paper

Disentangling the Effects of Migration, Selection and Acculturation on Weight and Body Fat Distribution: Results from a Natural Experiment Involving Vietnamese Americans, Returnees, and Never-Leavers

Authors: Hongyun Fu, Mark J. VanLandingham

Published in: Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health | Issue 5/2012

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Abstract

We distinguish between selection and true migration effects on weight and body fat for Vietnamese immigrants; and examine the role of acculturation on these outcomes. Data (n = 703) were collected among three population-based samples of working-age Vietnamese immigrants, repatriated emigrants and never-migrated Vietnamese nationals. This allows for a decomposition exercise to separate the effects of migration effects from selection effects on body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio (WHR). Immigrants are more likely to be overweight and to have high WHR, relative to both never-leavers and returnees, a pattern reflecting the importance of migration over selection. Among immigrants, coming to the US at a younger age is associated with higher BMI and WHR levels. And longer length of residence in the US is related to higher BMI. While higher Vietnamese language proficiency is related to a lower BMI level, being bilingual (proficient in both English and Vietnamese) is associated with lower risks for being overweight. The distinct pattern of results suggests that more problematic weight status and fat distribution among Vietnamese immigrants relative to Vietnamese nationals are not artifacts of the types of persons choosing to emigrate, but rather are due to acculturation to American diet and lifestyles. While efforts to promote and maintain traditional patterns of diet and lifestyle are likely to help Vietnamese and other immigrants avoid the perils of American patterns, facilitating a bi-cultural orientation is perhaps the most realistic approach for preserving protective features of the culture of origin with regard to body weight and fat distribution.
Footnotes
1
The original samples included 736 respondents. However, 27 individuals who did not meet the study criterion and 6 individuals with missing information on the key outcomes variables were excluded from the final analysis. The final analyses in this study included a final sample of 703 working age adults.
 
2
Many more men than women left Vietnam after the war; see Goodkind [23] for a discussion of some of the implications.
 
3
Educational attainment (not shown) also differs among the samples, especially between immigrants and nationals. This is due primarily to better opportunities for educational attainment among immigrants after their arrival in America. We thus employ occupational status as our preferred measure of socioeconomic status throughout the paper.
 
4
With regards to socioeconomic factors, older age and being male are consistently and significantly associated with higher levels of BMI and waist-hip ratio, and with higher likelihood of having problematic weight status. Being married is related to a higher likelihood of having high BMI (OR = 2.38, p < 0.03). There is no significant association between occupational status and the any of the weight-related health outcomes measured. Adding the control variables in the model only slightly reduced the magnitudes of associations between migration status and our obesity related health outcomes. Migration status is the most significant predictor of weight-related health outcomes in all of the models.
 
5
The main Vietnamese enclave flooded badly after Hurricane Katrina.
 
6
On the other hand, returnees received substantial benefits from UNHCR and other organizations that the never-leavers did not receive [77].
 
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Metadata
Title
Disentangling the Effects of Migration, Selection and Acculturation on Weight and Body Fat Distribution: Results from a Natural Experiment Involving Vietnamese Americans, Returnees, and Never-Leavers
Authors
Hongyun Fu
Mark J. VanLandingham
Publication date
01-10-2012
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health / Issue 5/2012
Print ISSN: 1557-1912
Electronic ISSN: 1557-1920
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-012-9595-5

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