Insulin resistance is a determinant of blood pressure variation and risk factor for hypertension. Because insulin resistance and blood pressure cosegregate in Mexican American families, we thus investigated the association between variations in 9 previously reported hypertension genes (ACE, AGT, AGTRI, ADDI, NPPA, ADDRB2, SCNN1A, GNB3, and NOS3) and insulin resistance. Families were ascertained...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We performed a pilot project to assess the need for and feasibility of a church-based stroke risk reduction intervention in a predominantly Mexican American community. METHODS Participants were recruited after each mass on a single weekend from 2 Catholic churches in Corpus Christi, Texas. Questionnaires about personal stroke risk factors and interest in program partici...

The numbers of Mexican Americans living in the United States, many of whom are first generation immigrants, are increasing. The process of immigration and acculturation can be accompanied by stress, as an individual attempts to reconcile two potentially competing sets of norms and values and to navigate a new social terrain. However, the outcomes of studies investigating the relationship betwee...

We examined associations of demographic/biological, psychological, social, and environmental variables with two different measures (self-reported and accelerometer) of physical activity (PA) in Mexican-American (56 boys; 64 girls) and European-American (49 boys; 45 girls) children (mean age = 12.1 years). Among 32 potential correlates, 4 gender and 16 ethnic differences were found. Percent of v...

Robert Hummer and Erin Hamilton note that the prevalence of fragile families varies substantially by race and ethnicity. African Americans and Hispanics have the highest prevalence; Asian Americans, the lowest; and whites fall somewhere in the middle. The share of unmarried births is lower among most foreign-born mothers than among their U.S.-born ethnic counterparts. Immigrant-native differenc...

OBJECTIVE To compare the indicator height for age in Mexican children with Down Syndrome (DS) with two different reference patterns of growth (American and Spanish) that might be suitable for the Mexican population. METHODS A cross-sectional study was performed including 235 Mexican children and adolescents of both sexes with DS aged 45 days to 16 years enrolled in two specialized schools in ...

Prenatal care health promotion education is an important strategy for reducing perinatal health disparities. The purposes of this study were to (a) identify differences between the health promotion content women wanted to discuss and the content women reported discussing and (b) determine whether ethnicity was related to health promotion content. A cross-sectional study used face-to-face interv...

Studies of alcohol consumption among Hispanics in the United States show different patterns based on gender, country of origin, and economic status. The literature shows a lower frequency but higher volume of consumption among Mexican-American and Puerto Rican males than among non-Hispanic white males. Cuban-American males have a pattern of relatively moderate consumption that resembles that of...

I n this month's issue, Olvera and colleagues 1 provide important findings about the increasingly recognized link among depression, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. 2 Evaluating 1,768 Mexican American adults living on the United States/Mexico border from 2004 to 2010, they found that 30% had current depression, 14% had severe depression, 52% were obese, and 45% had metabolic syndrome. Depressio...