Probably the thing that struck me most about The Starting Gate was the section on migration, specifically among Mexican Americans. Apparently Mexicans who had recently immigrated to America have staggeringly lower rates of low birth weight than Mexicans who had been in the country for some time. It was posited that this was because Mexicans have a sort of cultural protection in Mexico against substance abuse because of strong family ties and a life that is more suited to lower income areas. However when they settle in America they resort to our vices, substance abuse and smoking as their lives become more stressful. I was interested at how disparate the cost of living was between Mexico and America, and I found this interesting map. As you can see, the cost of living in Mexico is among the lowest in the world, but when Mexicans migrate into areas like California and Texas, they see their cost of living jump. If you add to this the wildly competitive labor market in these areas, you get a recipe for disaster for people coming to this country looking for their promised land of opportunity as immigrants struggle to cope with the increasing costs of living in America.
Another interesting aspect of the immigration discussion is that it gives us an almost real time look at what it is that might create problems like low birth weight in our society. Even though the text basically proves that having a low birth weight parent or grandparent leads to a greater chance of an infant being born low birth weight, the problem is clearly much more than genetic. With the sharp rise in low birth weight among Mexican Americans who have been in the country for some time compared to recent immigrants, we see that the problem is also sociological and environmentally related. The text tells us that substance abuse and smoking are more likely among the lower class, so it is easy to see how the labor class of immigrants would have health problems like low birth weight as pregnant women become more likely to smoke during pregnancy.
In terms of fixing the problem, I believe that a large amount of this issue is a lack of awareness among the general population with respect to the effects of substance abuse, alcohol, and smoking during pregnancy. The reason that low birth weight is more common among the lower class and underprivileged groups is because these groups are less likely to have gotten the education they need to be aware of the effects of drugs and alcohol during pregnancy. Hopefully this problem will be observed more closely when more research about the effects of low birth weight on life chances emerges and programs will be created to educate the public further about the issue of low birth weight and what causes it.
I found this post to be quite interesting because it displays the influence of societal factors on health in various contexts. Overall, I agree with the entire post, however, there was one statement that I, due to my experience, cannot agree with:
ReplyDelete“Apparently Mexicans who had recently immigrated to America have staggeringly lower rates of low-birth weight than Mexicans who had been in the country for some time.”
I am currently on a research team focusing on the Immigrant Paradox where we analyze this perplexing phenomenon. The most recent research has shown that new immigrants, despite lower socio-economic status, resources and English proficiency, tend to be as healthy or healthier than their American born counterparts (Abraido-Lanza et al. 2005). Furthermore, while they are initially healthier than the native-born population, with time in the United States, their health appears to decline (Acevedo-Garcia et al. 2005; Antecol and Bedard 2006), despite an increase in their socio-economic status, resources and English proficiency. The point of this research is to unveil the societal factors that play a role in this paradox. This framework provides insight in terms of the gene-environment divide posed in the readings, although genetics play a role, I tend to side with the environment as being the main contributor of this low birth weight. If first-generation immigrants (foreign born) are healthier than second and third-generation immigrants (U.S. born), are genetics to blame? Some Environment/Social factor is driving this phenomenon outside of the usual suspects (SES & resources).