Ethnic enclaves, neighborhood socioeconomic status, and obesity among Hispanic women in Chicago: a latent profile analysis approach.

Purpose: The prevalence of obesity, a crucial risk factor for breast cancer, is markedly higher among Hispanic women. The interaction between ethnic enclaves and neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) as a determinant of this disparity warrants further research. We aimed to identify neighborhood profiles based on ethnic enclaves and socioeconomic status to evaluate the association with obesity among Hispanic women in the metropolitan Chicago region.

Methods: We used a convenience sample of 24,884 Hispanic women over age 40 who obtained breast imaging from the largest healthcare organization in Chicago between 2010 and 2017. We conducted LPA to characterize neighborhood composition based on tract indicators of ethnic enclaves, disadvantage, and affluence. Multivariate linear and multinomial logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association of neighborhood profiles with BMI.

Results: The LPA model identified four latent profiles, labeled based on their most significant characteristic as "middling," "disadvantage" "ethnic enclaves," and "affluent". Close to 50% of women in the disadvantage profile were obese and obese class II. Women in the disadvantage profile had the highest relative risk of being obese II (OR: 2.74 CI 95% 2.23, 3.36), compared to women in the middling profile. Women in the ethnic enclave and affluent profile were positively and negatively associated with obesity, respectively.

Discussion: Using LPA to group individuals according to their combined traits provides empirical evidence to strengthen our understanding of how neighborhoods influence obesity in Hispanic women. The study findings suggest that ethnic enclaves, that are also disadvantage, are associated with obesity in Hispanic women.