U.S. Immigrant Children Vulnerable To Food Insecurity And Poor Health

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet;  Public Health
Article Date: 24 Dec 2008 - 0:00 PST

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U.S.-born children of immigrants have a higher risk of food insecurity and poor health than children whose mothers are born in the United States.

Researchers investigated the risk of household food security and reported health among young children who were U.S. citizens and whose mothers were immigrants compared with those whose mothers had been born in the United States. As part of the Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program, data were obtained from 19,275 mothers who were interviewed between 1998 and 2005. They found that immigrant households were at higher risk of food insecurity than were households with U.S.-born mothers. Particularly newly arrived immigrants were at the highest risk. In general, the household food insecurity increased the risk of fair or poor child health.

"Our findings may signal the need for a reassessment of current policies toward immigrants, especially those newly arrived in the country. In cases in which children are at increased risk of poor health, policies restricting immigrant families' access to health care and public health insurance may have serious effects on this already vulnerable population," researchers stated.

[From: "Food Insecurity and Risk of Poor Health Among US-Born Children of Immigrants" Contact: Mariana Chilton, PhD, MPH, Drexel University School of Public Health, Philadelphia, PA, mariana.chilton@drexel.edu].

This article came online online on December 23, 2008, at 4 p.m. (ET) by the American Journal of Public Health under "First Look" at http://www.ajph.org/first_look.shmtl, and it is currently scheduled to appear in the March 2009 print issue of the Journal. "First Look" articles have undergone peer review, copyediting and approval by authors but have not yet been printed to paper or posted online by issue. The American Journal of Public Health is published by the American Public Health Association, http://www.apha.org, and is available at http://www.ajph.org.

The American Journal of Public Health is the monthly Journal of the American Public Health Association (APHA), the oldest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world. APHA is a leading publisher of books and periodicals promoting sound scientific standards, action programs and public policy to enhance health.

American Journal of Public Health