Skin Tone, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender Differences in BMI among New US Immigrants

In this study, we use the New Immigrant Survey and interactions to examine how skin tone and race/ethnicity - alongside gender - jointly pattern BMI among Legal Permanent Residents. Our approach allows for the analysis of BMI among multiple racial/ethnic immigrant groups, while considering skin tone. Our results document that darker skin shades are associated with higher BMI, but only for women. Further, we also tease out the relationship between gender and race/ethnicity for BMI, which allows us to better understand this critical connection for new immigrants' health in the United States. Together, our results highlight that BMI jointly varies by skin tone and race/ethnicity, which emphasizes the importance of an intersectional approach, especially for new immigrant women of color.PMID:36388867 | PMC:PMC9590606 | DOI:10.18865/ed.32.4.315

Source: Ethnicity and Disease - November 17, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Matthew A Painter Jennifer Tabler Source Type: research