Latin American immigrant women more susceptible to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases
Font size:
Girls in Class. Photo: Servicio de Información y Noticias CientÃficas - SINC
Researchers in Spain analyzed the nutritional status and menstrual characteristics in a sample of native and immigrant Latin American girls and found that the immigrant girls had a higher percentage of body fat when they reached reproductive maturity. This weight gain during adolescence is deemed by the researchers as a risk factor for future cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
An increase in migration has changed Spain’s demographic profile in recent years, enabling researchers to study the micro-adaptive transition of immigrant people. As a result, adolescents have become the most vulnerable population during the maturing processes.
The start of menstrual cycles is one of the pillars of reproductive development and highly sensitive to the environmental context and health of the population. The study showed that immigrant girls experience a greater somatic and morphological change than native girls when passing from a pre-menstrual to a post-menstrual stage.
“Immigrant girls have a higher body mass index and higher body fat percentage than Spanish girls when they reach reproductive maturity, as well as higher truncal fat accumulation, which is related to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases,” according to lead author Raquel Fernández.
The research was carried out in four schools in the Madrid region and analysed 284 girls between 9 and 16 years old, who were assessed over a two-year period. The average age for beginning mental cycles was 12.46 years old for native girls and 12.57 years old for immigrants, all who came from Latin America.
Need for focused health campaigns
After analyzing the relationship between the variables, the researchers established two subgroups: Spanish girls with normal weight and regular menstrual cycles, and immigrant girls with excess weight and irregular cycles. According to a written statement by Raquel Fernández, “These results suggest the need to create health campaigns focused on the adolescent immigrant population in order to adopt healthy lifestyles.”
The scientists from the Autonomous University of Madrid (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) encourage children and young people to adopt healthy lifestyles and they provide their families with guidance for preventive steps to take to avoid future illness.
The authors prepared a personal report for each of the girls. In addition, fathers and mothers received a summary with their children's measurements, ideal values for their age and sex, and personal recommendations for improving their quality of life.
“Excess weight is still very prevalent at this age and both diet and physical exercise differ from the recommendations, with this characteristic being especially noteworthy in the immigrant population,” according to the researchers.
Reference:
Raquel Fernández del Olmo, Javier Anuncibay, Consuelo Prado. “Maturational profiles and migration in the female adolescent population of Madrid: Is there a need for a new perspective?” Collegium Antropologicum; 32(1):15-19 MAY 2008.
Add to:
del.icio.us |
Digg
del.icio.us |
Digg
Email to a friend
Print version
Plain textRate this article
Comments (0 posted):
Post your comment