Contributions of individual acculturation and neighborhood ethnic density to variations in Hispanic children's respiratory health in a US-Mexican border metropolis.

BACKGROUND: We used an expanded conceptualization of ethnic density at the neighborhood level, tailored to Hispanic majority communities in the USA, and a robust measure of children's acculturation at the individual level, to predict Hispanic children's respiratory health.

METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 1904 children in 2012 in El Paso, TX, USA. One thousand one hundred and seven Hispanic children nested within 72 census tracts were analyzed. Multilevel logistic regression models with cross-level interactions were used to predict bronchitis, asthma and wheezing during sleep.

RESULTS: A neighborhood-level ethnic density factor was a non-significant risk factor while individual-level acculturation was a significant risk factor for the three outcomes. Pest troubles and not having been breastfed as an infant intensified the positive association between ethnic density and bronchitis. Increases in ethnic density intensified the odds of wheezing in sleep if the child was not low birth weight or was not economically deprived.

CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that increasing individual-level acculturation is detrimental for US Hispanic children's respiratory health in this Hispanic majority setting, while high ethnic density neighborhoods are mildly risky and pose more significant threats when other individual-level factors are present.