Food insecurity and risk of poor health among US-born children of immigrants

Abstract

Objectives. We investigated the risk of household food insecurity and reported fair or poor health among very young children who were US citizens and whose mothers were immigrants compared with those whose mothers had been born in the United States. Methods. Data were obtained from 19275 mothers (7216 of whom were immigrants) who were interviewed in hospital-based settings between 1998 and 2005 as part of the Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program. We examined whether food insecurity mediated the association between immigrant status and child health in relation to length of stay in the United States. Results. The risk of fair or poor health was higher among children of recent immigrants than among children of US-born mothers (odds ratio [OR]=1.26; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.02, 1.55; P