Obesity More Likely for Immigrants With Longer Duration of U.S. Residence

TUESDAY, July 21, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Hispanic and Asian adults with longer duration of U.S. residence have a higher prevalence of obesity, according to a research letter published online July 21 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Maria Claros, M.P.H., from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues used cross-sectional data from foreign-born respondents aged 18 years or older to the 2019 and 2021 to 2024 National Health Interview Surveys to reexamine the association between duration of U.S. residence and obesity.

The researchers found that 16 percent of 138,473 respondents were foreign-born, representing 43 million adults. Of these, 46, 26, 18, and 10 percent were Hispanic, Asian, White, and Black, respectively; 71 percent had resided in the United States for 15 years or longer. U.S.-born adults had higher obesity prevalence (35 percent) compared with foreign-born adults at any duration of U.S. residence, apart from foreign-born Hispanic adults in the United States for 15 years or longer (37 percent). The risk for obesity was more than double for foreign-born adults with longer duration of U.S. residence versus those in the United States for less than five years, after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics; the association was seen for Hispanic and Asian adults, but not for White or Black adults. After further adjustment for health behaviors and health utilization, the results were similar.

“Our findings show that previously observed associations between duration of U.S. residence and obesity may be driven by specific racial and ethnic groups, highlighting a more complex relationship than inferred by prior work,” the authors write.

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