Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

We examined the relationship between ethnic self-identification and the partitioning of health risk within a Mexican American population.

METHODS:

We combined data from the 2000 to 2002 National Health Interview Surveys to obtain a large (N = 10 044) sample of US residents of Mexican ancestry. We evaluated health risk, defined as self-reported current smoking, overweight, and obesity, and compared the predictive strength of health risk correlates across self-identified Mexican and Mexican American participants.

RESULTS:

Self-identified Mexican participants were less likely to smoke (odds ratio [OR] = 0.70; 95% confidence interval[CI] = 0.60, 0.83; P < .001) and to be obese (OR = 0.66; 95% CI = 0.56, 0.77; P < .001) than were self-identified Mexican American participants. Within-group analyses found that sociodemographic predictors had inconsistent and even contradictory patterns of association with health risk across the 2 subgroups. Health risk was consistently lower among immigrants relative to US-born participants. Ethnic self-identification effects were independent of socioeconomic status.

CONCLUSIONS:

US residents of Mexican ancestry showed substantial within-group differences in health risk and risk correlates. Ethnic self-identification is a promising strategy to clarify differential risk and may help resolve apparent discrepancies in health risk correlates in this literature.