Higher Diet Quality in Latina Women during Pregnancy May Be Associated with Sociodemographic Factors

Juliana Teruel Camargo (), Matthew K. Taylor, Byron J. Gajewski, Susan E. Carlson, Debra K. Sullivan and Heather D. Gibbs
Additional contact information
Juliana Teruel Camargo: Department of Dietetics & Nutrition, School of Health Professions, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
Matthew K. Taylor: Department of Dietetics & Nutrition, School of Health Professions, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
Byron J. Gajewski: Department of Biostatistics & Data Science, School of Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
Susan E. Carlson: Department of Dietetics & Nutrition, School of Health Professions, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
Debra K. Sullivan: Department of Dietetics & Nutrition, School of Health Professions, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA
Heather D. Gibbs: Department of Dietetics & Nutrition, School of Health Professions, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-8

Abstract: Acculturation contributes to low diet quality and can foster health inequities for Latina women during pregnancy. Conversely, nutrition literacy (NL) increases diet quality and could promote health equity. This study assessed the associations between the diet quality, acculturation, and NL of Latina women (n = 99) participating in the Assessment of Docosahexaenoic Acid On Reducing Early Preterm Birth (ADORE) study. Acculturation and nutrition literacy factored together tended to modify diet quality, but this was not statistically significant. Diet quality was associated with acculturation, age, and nativity. Most (76.8%) demonstrated low nutrition literacy. Women who were bicultural and were born in Latin American countries other than Mexico had lower diet quality scores than women who had lower acculturation and were born in Mexico. Women who were 35 years or older had better diet quality than those who were younger. Future studies are needed to explore diet quality differences for pregnant Latina women with high nutrition literacy and high acculturation, as well as for women from the Caribbean, Central and South American countries living in the US, to promote nutrition and maternal health for Latina women.

Keywords: nutrition literacy; acculturation; diet intake; diet quality; pregnancy; Hispanic or Latino; immigrants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/13895/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/13895/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:21:p:13895-:d:953327

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().