Healthy foods prepared at home: Diet and support as protective strategies during pregnancy for Hispanic women

Abstract

Birth outcomes tend to be better among Hispanics than among other ethnic groups, even when matched for poverty and education, and foreign-born Latinas compared to their US-born counterparts. These patterns suggest that sociocultural factors exhibited by recent immigrants have the potential to protect birth outcomes against the instability of minority and low socioeconomic status. To discover potential sociocultural factors, a pilot qualitative study was carried out in Tucson, Arizona, with 18 Hispanic mothers. The two most prevalent factors reported were (1) a healthy diet prepared at home from minimally processed ingredients, and (2) constant and comprehensive social support. When comparing responses related to diet by interview language preference, a proxy for acculturation, there was very little difference between participants who interviewed in Spanish and those who interviewed in English. This result may be explained by greater maternal social support and higher education levels among those who interviewed in English.