# Acculturation and Health Status in the Children’s Healthy Living Program in the Pacific Region

## TL;DR

This study explores how cultural identity among caregivers affects child health outcomes like obesity in the Pacific region.

## Contribution

The study identifies a protective effect of traditional cultural identity in caregivers against childhood overweight/obesity.

## Key findings

- Children of caregivers with traditional cultural identity had lower odds of being overweight/obese.
- Traditional cultural identity was also linked to lower waist circumference in children.
- Acanthosis nigricans showed no significant association with cultural classification.

## Abstract

Acculturation/enculturation has been found to impact childhood health and obesity status. The objective of this study is to use cross-sectional data to examine the association between proxies of adult/caregiver acculturation/enculturation and child health status (Body Mass Index [BMI], waist circumference [WC], and acanthosis nigricans [AN]) in the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI), Alaska, and Hawaiʻi. Study participants were from the Children’s Healthy Living (CHL) Program, an environmental intervention trial and obesity prevalence survey. Anthropometric data from 2–8 year olds and parent/caregiver questionnaires were used in this analysis. The results of this study (n = 4121) saw that those parents/caregivers who identified as traditional had children who were protected against overweight/obesity (OWOB) status and WC > 75th percentile (compared to the integrated culture identity) when adjusted for significant variables from the descriptive analysis. AN did not have a significant association with cultural classification. Future interventions in the USAPI, Alaska, and Hawaiʻi may want to focus efforts on parents/caregivers who associated with an integrated cultural group as an opportunity to improve health and reduce child OWOB prevalence.