Introduction:
Latino/as in the US on average present with low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and high body-mass index (BMI), putting them at higher risk for future cardiometabolic disease. Neighborhoods have been implicated, directly and indirectly, in poorer cardiometabolic health among ethnic minorities. US Latino/as often live in neighborhoods where they may not have access to engage in positive health behaviors, such as proper diet and physical activity. However, the mediating role of discrimination experienced in these neighborhoods has hardly been examined within the context of Latino/a cardiometabolic health.
Methods:
We analyzed data from the Texas City Stress and Health Study. Participants were self-identified Latino/a/Hispanic (
N
= 500, 61.8% female,
M
age
= 49.08,
SD
age
= 15.80) who reported on their perceived experience of discrimination (higher scores reflecting more discrimination) and their perception of their neighborhood (higher scores reflecting more positive environment) validated survey measures. A trained phlebotomist drew blood in a clinic or in the participant’s home between 8 and 11 AM after fasting for HDL (mg/dL). Blood samples were centrifuged to obtain plasma, which was stored at –70°C until testing. All specimen were batch analyzed and read blind-coded. Additionally, they took clinical measures of participant’s height and weight, to calculate BMI (adjusted for sex). To estimate the mediating effect of discrimination through perception of neighborhood on cardiometabolic risk, path analysis with bootstrapped linear regression models were conducted. We conducted analyses unadjusted and adjusted for age, sex, education, and nativity. All analyses were conducted in the PROCESS macro in SPSS.
Results:
Participants on average had high HDL levels (
M
mg/dL
= 51.00, SD = 15.59). Males on average were overweight (
M
BMI
= 29.78, SD = 5.49) and females (
M
BMI
= 31.42, SD = 7.27) on average were obese. Bootstrapped estimates showed that perception of neighborhood fully mediated the effect of discrimination on HDL (b = -.43, SE = .18
p
= .015) and BMI (b = .02, SE = .01,
p
= .023), unadjusted for covariates. Although the fully mediated model for BMI withstood adjustment for covariates, the model for HDL did not withstand adjustment.
Conclusion:
Discrimination accounts for the negative impact that neighborhood problems have on poor cardiometabolic health among adult Latino/as. Future research should examine how positive neighborhood interactions (e.g., walking clubs or playgroups) can mitigate the adverse effects on cardiometabolic health among this at-risk population.
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