Ethnic-group socioeconomic status as an indicator of community-level disadvantage: A study of overweight/obesity in Asian American adolescents

Asian American children and adolescents are an under-investigated subpopulation in obesity research. Informed by a wide socioeconomic diversity among Asian American ethnic groups, this study explored ethnic-group socioeconomic status (SES) as an indicator of community-level disadvantage that may influence overweight/obesity in Asian American adolescents. We hypothesized that ethnic-group SES was inversely associated with overweight/obesity in Asian American adolescents. Multiple logistic regression models were fitted using a sample of 1525 Asian American adolescents ages 12-17 from pooled 2007-2012 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data. Age, gender, nativity, individual-level SES (income and education), and two lifestyle variables (fast food consumption and physical activity) were controlled for. We found that adolescents in high- or middle-level SES ethnic groups were far less likely to be overweight/obese than those in low-SES ethnic groups. Further, these relationships were more pronounced for foreign-born adolescents but not significant for U.S.-born adolescents. Ethnic group SES may be a meaningful indicator of community-level socioeconomic disparities that influence the health of Asian Americans and, potentially, other populations with high proportions of immigrants of diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.