A new study led by the University of the District of Columbia has identified an association between U.S. citizenship status and diet quality among adults of African descent, revealing the negative impact of colonization and U.S. assimilation on the health of Black Americans and immigrants.
For the study, the authors analyzed data on nearly 1,200 adults with African descent in the United States. The authors measured each individual’s diet quality using the federal Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and determined their “citizenship level” using a model that incorporated years lived in the U.S., country of birth, and citizenship status.
According to their findings, 61 percent of adults with high levels of U.S. citizenship had poor diet quality, compared to 33.9 percent and 46.1 percent of adults with moderate and low citizenship status, respectively. Furthermore, the authors found that foreign-born individuals, regardless of their citizenship level, were more likely to have higher diet quality than individuals born domestically. The study also revealed that adults under age 40, men, and those from low-income backgrounds were more likely to have poorer quality diets than older adults, women, and those with higher incomes, respectively.
“Notably, we found no connection between time spent in the US and diet quality among foreign-born subjects with African descent,” the authors write. “Foreign-born status alone influenced higher HEI scores than US-born counterparts. This underscores the importance of investigating assumptions that exist among subgroups within minoritized populations.”
In addition to authors from the University of the District of Columbia, the research was conducted by scholars at McDaniel College in Maryland, George Mason University in Virginia, and the Fairfax County Health Department in Virginia.
