Table 1.
Baseline characteristics by language-based and psychological-based acculturation tertile among adults in the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study.
| Characteristic | Language-based acculturation scale |
Psychological-based acculturation scale |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| More Spanish (n = 331) |
Middle (bilingual) (n = 413) |
More English (n = 370) |
p | More Puerto Rican (n = 378) |
Middle (bicultural) (n = 343) |
More U.S. (n = 393) |
p | |
| Age, mean (SE) | 59.7 (0.40) | 57.4 (0.36) | 55.1 (0.38) | <0.0001 | 58.6 (0.38) | 57.3 (0.40) | 56.1 (0.37) | <0.0001 |
| Age at migration, mean (SE) | 28.3 (0.61) | 23.3 (0.54) | 18.0 (0.58) | <0.0001 | 26.1 (0.59) | 23.9 (0.62) | 19.2 (0.58) | <0.0001 |
| Female (%) | 72.5 | 69.5 | 58.4 | 0.0001 | 66.1 | 68.5 | 65.7 | 0.68 |
| Marital status (%) | 0.003 | 0.29 | ||||||
| Married | 27.0 | 36.1 | 36.0 | 32.5 | 32.9 | 34.4 | ||
| Single | 43.8 | 37.8 | 41.1 | 40.2 | 39.4 | 42.2 | ||
| Divorced | 15.7 | 11.9 | 7.0 | 13.2 | 13.4 | 7.9 | ||
| Widowed | 13.6 | 14.3 | 16.0 | 14.0 | 14.3 | 15.5 | ||
| Education status (%) | <0.0001 | <0.0001 | ||||||
| ≤8th grade | 69.2 | 44.6 | 21.4 | 57.1 | 41.4 | 34.1 | ||
| Some high school | 26.9 | 45.3 | 45.1 | 36.8 | 41.1 | 41.5 | ||
| ≥high school | 3.9 | 10.2 | 33.5 | 6.1 | 17.5 | 24.4 | ||
| Household income (%) | <0.0001 | <0.0001 | ||||||
| <$10,000 | 57.7 | 42.9 | 28.7 | 49.7 | 43.2 | 34.9 | ||
| $10,000–$24,999 | 35.4 | 41.7 | 37.8 | 38.1 | 36.2 | 41.0 | ||
| >$24,999 | 7.3 | 15.5 | 33.5 | 12.2 | 20.7 | 24.2 | ||
| Currently employed (%) | 6.7 | 14.8 | 39.5 | <0.0001 | 12.2 | 19.0 | 30.0 | <0.0001 |
| Food insufficiency (%) | 12.4 | 9.4 | 10.3 | 0.42 | 10.3 | 10.2 | 11.2 | 0.89 |
| Health insurance (%) | 96.4 | 95.2 | 92.7 | 0.08 | 95.2 | 94.8 | 94.2 | 0.79 |
| Smoking status (%) | 0.005 | 0.49 | ||||||
| Never | 49.9 | 47.0 | 37.8 | 48.4 | 44.0 | 42.0 | ||
| Former | 29.3 | 32.0 | 32.4 | 28.8 | 31.8 | 33.3 | ||
| Current | 20.9 | 21.1 | 29.7 | 22.8 | 24.2 | 24.7 | ||
Notes: Psychological-based acculturation was assessed by asking to which cultural group(s) individuals most identified for questions related to attachment and belonging. Language-based acculturation was assessed by asking which language(s) individuals used for usual daily activities. Baseline psychological- and language-based acculturation scores were categorized into tertiles (psychological-based acculturation = low, 0–14.9; middle, 15–20.9; high, 21–50; language-based acculturation = low, 0–8.3; middle, 8.3–34.9; high, 35–100).
Food insufficiency was assessed using a question adapted from the USDA Food Security/Hunger Scale, wherein participants were asked to describe the food eaten in their household in the last 12-months, with responses “sometimes not enough to eat” and “often not enough to eat” classified as food insufficient and responses “enough of the kinds of foods we want to eat” and “enough but not always the kinds of food we want” classified as food sufficient. Smoking status was defined as “never” if the respondent smoked <100 cigarettes in their entire life, “former” if they reported smoking in the past but not currently, and “current” if they reported currently smoking.