Food insecurity, dietary quality, and the role of social network support and barriers among immigrant Latino adults in New York City

Social Networks, Health Support, and Dietary Intake in Mothers Receiving Home Visiting Services

Home visiting programs (HVPs) provide services to pregnant individuals and parents of young children to improve families' health and well-being. However, little is known about these families' social contexts. This study explores the social networks and dietary intake of mothers enrolled in a HVP, focusing on health support and health undermining. Cross-sectional data from 76 mothers enrolled in a HVP in Los Angeles County were collected by interview, using validated measures. Almost all mothers (95.7%) had one or more health supporters, while 55.1% had one or more health underminers. Some key findings related to health support were that mothers with higher income had more health supporters in their network (b = 1.36, p = 0.03), and network members were more likely to be health supporters if they were a romantic partner (OR = 3.41, p < 0.001), a resource-based connection (OR = 3.46, p < 0.01), or if they lived in the same neighborhood as the mother (OR = 1.68, p < 0.05). Further, having a health supporter who lived in the same neighborhood was associated with consuming more (1 + daily servings) vegetables (OR = 3.0, p < 0.05) and no sugar-sweetened beverages (OR = 0.29, p < 0.05). There were fewer findings related to health undermining: network members more likely to be underminers were romantic partners (OR = 8.93, p < .0001), and those perceived as having overweight or obesity (OR = 3.98, p < 0.001), but health undermining did not predict dietary intake. Overall, a broad set of network features were linked with health support, and given that some types of support were linked with better diet, network-based diet interventions leveraging health support may be effective in this priority population.

Dietary Adherence and Cognitive Performance in Older Adults by Nativity Status: Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2011-2014

Although adherence to dietary guidelines is associated with better cognitive performance, there may be differences by nativity status. This study aimed to investigate the association between adherence to the healthy eating index (HEI) and cognitive performance (CP) among United States (US)-born and foreign-born older adults (60+ years). Data were obtained from the 2011-2014 NHANES (n = 3065). Dietary adherence was assessed with HEI quintiles. CP (adequate vs. low) was examined using word listing (CERAD), animal naming (AFT), and the digit symbol substitution test (DSST). Weighted multivariable logistic regressions were used to examine associations. The US-born participants in higher dietary quintiles had adequate CP when compared to foreign-born participants. In adjusted models, the US-born participants in the highest HEI quintile had increased odds of adequate DSST scores (odds ratio: 1.95, 95% confidence interval: 1.15-3.28) compared with those in the lowest quintile. Patterns of association were generally reversed for foreign-born participants and were non-statistically significant. Future research should consider the influence of diets in delaying or preventing decline in cognition and evaluate nutritional factors that contribute to cognitive outcomes for the foreign-born population.