University of Chicago researcher Dr. Aresha Martinez-Cardoso and Dr. Krista M. Perreira of the UNC Department of Social Medicine led a team on the study, which was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The study’s findings are important for clinicians who serve immigrant populations and who would need to consider how time in the U.S. can lead to changes in lifestyle factors including diet and physical activity that can influence health.
A new study shows that migration from Mexico to the United States can influence cardiovascular risk profiles. The study’s findings are important for clinicians who serve immigrant populations and who would need to consider how time in the U.S. can lead to changes in lifestyle factors including diet and physical activity that can influence health.
University of Chicago researcher Dr. Aresha Martinez-Cardoso and Dr. Krista M. Perreira of the UNC Department of Social Medicine led a team of researchers in conducting a binational, population-based, cross-sectional analysis using the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (2008–2011) and the Mexican Family Life Survey (2009–2011).
Their findings, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, suggested that migration can influence cardiovascular risk profiles, as the cardiovascular health of Mexican immigrants to the U.S. comes to resemble the cardiovascular health of U.S.-born Mexican Americans while the cardiovascular health of immigrants who return to Mexico resembles the health of non-Migrants in Mexico.
They compared the cardiovascular risk factors among 13,486 adults categorized as U.S.-born Mexican Americans, foreign-born Mexicans in the U.S., return migrants in Mexico and non-migrants in Mexico.
Compared with non-migrants living in Mexico, they found that foreign-born Mexicans in the U.S. had higher odds of overweight and elevated waist-to-hip ratio, but lower odds of clinical hypertension. Compared with U.S.-born Mexican Americans, foreign-born Mexicans in the U.S. had similar cardiovascular risk profiles.
In addition, the cardiovascular risk factors in return migrants did not differ significantly from non-migrants living in Mexico.