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Mexicans who migrate to the United States endure significant stressors related to the migration process and social and environmental conditions of life in the United States. Given that chronic stress exposure has been linked to the onset of health conditions, these ecological factors may expose them to increased risk for poor health. However, Mexicans have many positive health outcomes compared to those monitored nationally, making it crucial to understand possible sources of resilience in this population. Here, we investigate Mexicans' lay health knowledge in response to stress as a possible source of health-related resilience. Health knowledge is considered a central facet of practical and traditional knowledge as well as adaptive modes of intelligence and has a tangible impact on health. Using an ethnographically grounded community-based participatory research design informed by the theory of embodiment, our hybrid team of bilingual university and community-based researchers interviewed Mexican-origin residents (N = 30) living in rural southwestern Arizona about how they experienced and responded to stress and incorporated it into their etiological frameworks. Thematic analysis revealed that participants paid close attention to how stress presented itself in their bodies, which informed their understanding of its potentially harmful health impacts and motivated them to employ multiple stress reduction strategies. Our results highlight the breadth of Mexicans' lay health knowledge, thereby challenging dominant narratives about low rates of health literacy in this population. Findings can be harnessed to optimize potential health protective effects in home and community settings as well as to inform preventive and clinical interventions.

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BACKGROUND: Guided by Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Services Use (BMHSU), this study aimed to identify determinants of post-migration healthcare use among a sample of Mexican immigrants in a US-Mexico border region in Southern Arizona, while considering pre-migration health and healthcare experiences. METHODS: A non-probabilistic convenience sample of 300 adult Mexican immigrants completed a telephone survey to assess healthcare practices. Multivariable logistic regressions were fitted to determine adjusted relationships between frequency of care and predisposing, enabling, need, and contextual factors as well as personal health practices. RESULTS: Overall, participants had a 79% probability of receiving healthcare "at least once a year" after migrating to Southern Arizona. Receiving post-migration healthcare was associated with predisposing, enabling, need, contextual factors, and personal health practices (p < 0.05). DISCUSSION: Consistent with BMHSU, our findings suggest that frequency of healthcare is not only a function of having post-migration health insurance but is also shaped by a complex array of other factors. The results of this study shed light onto potential areas to be leveraged by multifactorial sociocultural interventions to increase Mexican immigrants' frequency of healthcare services use.

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This article demonstrates how digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) (Zoom/WhatsApp) unexpectedly and counterintuitively proved to be valuable tools for community-engaged health research when, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were integrated into a research study testing a peer support group intervention with female immigrants from Mexico. Because of pandemic restrictions, we changed the study protocol to hold meetings remotely via Zoom rather than in person as originally planned. Because we recognized that this would lack some opportunities for participants to interact and develop relationships, we created a WhatsApp chat for each group. Despite challenges for participants to use ICTs and participant-stated preference for in-person meetings, the results demonstrated that participants overwhelmingly endorsed these technologies as promoting access, participation, engagement, and satisfaction. Zoom/WhatsApp created a valuable environment both as a method for conducting research with this population, but also as part of the intervention for immigrant women to support and learn from each other. ICT adaptations have now permanently changed the way we conduct community-engaged health research.

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Mexicans in the United States have been reported to maintain practices of Mexican traditional medicine at comparably higher rates than most other populations, including other Latino sub-groups. In this cross-sectional study, we examined the pre- and post-migration traditional medicine practices of first-generation immigrants from Mexico living in southern Arizona. Our objective was to assess how migration affected Mexican immigrants' ethnomedical practices and to better understand the mechanisms and motivating factors for the post-migration maintenance of practice. We designed a survey instrument based off prior qualitative data on traditional medicine practices and translated it into Spanish. The survey measured the rates and frequency of six domains of lay healing practices: herbal medicine, healing foods, self-medication with over-the-counter medicine, and three types of specialty healers (curandero/a, and sobador/a, or partero/a), and asked questions about knowledge sources, reasons for maintaining practice post-migration, and to what extent participants believed the remedies were effective. The research team fielded the telephone-based survey from April 2022 to February 2023 to 300 first-generation adult Mexican immigrants residing in southern Arizona. A series of proportions tests were conducted to examine differences in reliance on lay healing pre- and post-migration as well as to assess differences between women's and men's lay practices. The data indicate a general, but moderated decline in lay medical practices post-migration, with the usage of expert healers declining at much higher rates than the three self-care domains. Women tend to use herbal medicine and healing foods at higher rates than men post-migration. This cross-sectional quantitative study confirms prior research indicating that traditional medicine practices are heavily relied upon by Mexican origin people both pre- and post-migration. These findings suggest that public health messaging and medical providers should better address and harness Mexican immigrants' lay medical practices in order to optimize health in this population.

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Mexican Americans are among the highest risk groups for obesity and its associated health consequences, including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. 154 overweight/obese Mexican Americans recruited from the Mexican Consulate in New York City were enrolled in COMIDA (Consumo de Opciones Más Ideales De Alimentos) (Eating More Ideal Food Options), a 12-week Spanish-language lifestyle intervention that included a dietary counseling session, weight-loss resources, and thrice-weekly text messages. Participants' weight (primary outcome); dietary intake, physical activity, and nutrition knowledge (secondary outcomes) were assessed pre- and post-intervention. Of the 109 who completed follow-up, 28% lost ≥ 5% of their baseline body weight. Post-intervention, participants consumed more fruit and less soda, sweet pastries, fried foods and red meat; increased physical activity; and evidenced greater nutrition knowledge. A community-based lifestyle intervention with automated components such as text messaging may be a scalable, cost-effective approach to address overweight/obesity among underserved populations.

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Introduction: Mental health promotion and screenings are recommended as part of standard preventive care. Mexican immigrants in the U.S. are at high risk for mental health illness especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, however access to mental health prevention for this population has been limited, which results in important implementation and equity gaps. The Ventanilla de Salud (VDS) program provides preventive services through Mexican consulates in the U.S. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess capability, opportunity, and motivation for promotores to implement mental health programming through the VDS, leveraging early experiences of ongoing mental health prevention efforts. Methods: This was a qualitative study using the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation for Behavior Change model (COM-B). We conducted 9 focus groups with 40 VDS promotores and 6 semi-structured interviews with program stakeholders. Data were analyzed using inductive and deductive coding. Results: We found high levels of interest from the leadership, partners, and promotores to provide mental health services through the VDS. Early implementation of a mental health strategy that included training sessions for promotores and mental health promotion, screenings and referrals for VDS users was ongoing. We identified facilitators and barriers that could affect capability, opportunity, and motivation to provide mental health services. Facilitators included promotores' extensive knowledge about the importance of mental health, promotores service mindset and commitment to provide services to VDS users, and general support from the VDS network and partners. Barriers included promotores' turnover, need for additional economic compensation, burnout, competing priorities, and lack of mental health professionals to provide clinical services or supervision. Additional investments are recommended to support promotores' well-being. Conclusion: The main lesson learned from this study was that investing in VDS promotores' training, resources, and well-being is key to their capability, opportunity and motivation to provide mental health services for Mexican immigrants in the US. Results from this study can be applied to improve the ongoing VDS mental health strategy and increase its impact on the mental health of Mexican immigrants.

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We are a group of 11 women in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Nine of us are immigrants from Mexico. One of us is from an immigrant household. One of us is neither. We have been working collaboratively on a research study called Tertulias (Spanish for "a social gathering"), which is an innovative women's peer support group approach we created to reduce social isolation, depression, and stress among women immigrants from Mexico, and to increase their resilience and sense of empowerment. In the process of implementing the Tertulias study, we are revealing the profound power of peer support, friendship, and small, quotidian kindnesses. But we are also exposing the immensity and scope of trauma, fear, loneliness, depression, and self-blame that exist in the Mexican immigrant community because of domestic violence. Our experience with domestic violence and with the consciousness-raising and support we found in Tertulias has made us want to be involved in a positive manner to do something about this issue in our community. We want our experience to mean something-to be used to make a difference. We are opening our hearts and sharing our stories and ideas. We wanted to be included as co-authors of this article because we want our stories to be received and heard by other women. We want to plant seeds to help other women find their inner strength to be able to escape from their chains. We have to return for others. It is a commitment-to understand how we were able to do it and share that with others. Through our experience participating in Tertulias, we learned that we could overcome what felt overwhelming and impenetrable. We could leave the violence and rediscover and recreate ourselves and our lives.

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Objective: This study examines the association between acculturative stress and psychological distress among Mexican immigrants living in New York City. It takes account factors such as language barriers, legal status, fear of deportation, and avoidance of social health and human services, and how these factors are implicated in the mental health status of the study population. Design: Study draws from a community-based sample of Mexican American adults from the Social Network of Mexican Americans study recruited from a church-based community center in the Bronx, New York. Eighty Mexican immigrants were included in this analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to display participants' characteristics. Pearson correlation and multiple regressions were run to determine the relationship between acculturative stress and psychological distress, and also with each of the items from the acculturative stress scale. Both scales have been validated among Spanish-speaking Latino immigrants. Results: A significant moderate positive relationship was found between acculturative stress and psychological distress. Within the acculturative stress scale, those items related to language discrimination, evasion of health services, and feeling guilty for leaving family/friends in home country had significant associations with increased psychological distress. Conclusion: The findings support the need for interventions that account for the major stressors associated with being a Mexican immigrant in the United States to prevent psychological distress, especially given the anti-immigration policies.

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OBJECTIVE: People of color and lower socioeconomic status groups in the USA, including those of Mexican origin, are exposed to higher concentrations of air pollution, including fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Associations were examined between neighborhood air pollution levels and the psychosocial and demographic characteristics of linguistically isolated Mexican-origin immigrant families. Housing mobility and changes in air pollution levels due to changes in residence were also examined. METHODS: A sample of 604 linguistically isolated Mexican-origin families in central TX provided data on demographic and psychosocial experiences. Outdoor air pollution concentrations at participants' home addresses were based on high-resolution estimates of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and its constituents. Movers were identified as families whose residential addresses changed during the study period; these participants were further grouped and compared based on the change in their residential PM2.5 concentration from before to after their move. RESULTS: Lower PM2.5 concentrations were associated with reports of more ethnic discriminatory experiences, higher socioeconomic status, and higher perceived neighborhood safety. Among the 23% of families who changed residences, PM2.5 concentrations were generally lower at the new family address. Families with mothers reporting a greater sense of neighborhood safety or acculturation levels tended to move from one area low in air pollutants to another, and mothers reporting the lowest levels of neighborhood safety or acculturation tended to move from one area high in air pollutants to another. CONCLUSION: There are limits to assimilation for Mexican immigrant families. Living in more advantaged neighborhoods is associated with experiencing better air quality, but this advantage may come at the cost of experiencing more ethnic discrimination.

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Mexican Americans are at increased risk for obesity upon immigration to the U.S., increasing their risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Our pilot individual lifestyle intervention culturally tailored for Mexican Americans, COMIDA (Consumo de Opciones Más Ideales De Alimentos) (Eating More Ideal Food Options), showed promising results. This paper presents outcomes from the group-based version of COMIDA. 129 overweight/obese Mexican Americans were enrolled in 'Group COMIDA'. Participants' weight (primary outcome), dietary intake and nutrition knowledge (secondary outcomes) were assessed pre- and post-intervention. Seventeen percent of participants experienced 5% weight loss at follow-up. Post-intervention, participants consumed more fruit and vegetables and fewer sweets and fried foods. A group-based, culturally adapted lifestyle intervention may be a more cost-effective approach than individual interventions to improve dietary behavior among underserved populations, though additional modifications may be considered to increase the intervention's effectiveness in promoting significant weight loss.

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Perceptions of community can play an important role in determining health and well-being. We know little, however, about residents' perceptions of community safety in the Southwestern borderlands, an area frequently portrayed as plagued by disorder. The qualitative aim of this community-based participatory research study was to explore the perceptions of Mexican-origin border residents about their communities in southern Yuma County, Arizona. Our team of University of Arizona researchers and staff from Campesinos Sin Fronteras, a grassroots farmworker support agency in Yuma County, Arizona, developed a bilingual interview guide and recruited participants through radio adds, flyers, and cold calls among existing agency clientele. Thirty individual interviews with participants of Mexican origin who live in and/or work in rural Yuma County were conducted remotely in 2021. Participants overwhelmingly perceived their communities as both calm and safe. While some participants mentioned safety concerns, the vast majority described high levels of personal security and credited both neighbors and police for ensuring local safety. These perceptions were stated in direct contrast to those across the border, where participants had positive familial and cultural ties but negative perceptions regarding widespread violence. In conclusion, we argue that to understand environmental factors affecting health and well-being in Mexican immigrant populations, it is critical to examine the role of binational external referents that color community perceptions.

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INTRODUCTION: This article aims to increase understanding of how Mexican immigrants respond to learning about non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a spectrum disease with a heavy burden among Mexican-origin people. METHODOLOGY: This article presents findings from qualitative interviews (n = 26) that formed part of a mixed-methods study of foreign-born Mexican immigrants carried out in 2019 to 2020 in southern Arizona to assess NAFLD awareness. RESULTS: We documented common experiences of surprise, fear, and hope during study participation, all of which motivated research participants to reduce their NAFLD risk by seeking additional information, sharing it with others, and making lifestyle changes. DISCUSSION: Understanding how these emotional experiences are tied to cultural and historical factors-including Mexico's high rates of liver disease, participant's limited access to health care, and the ability to address the NAFLD risk with lifestyle changes-may promote the development of more effective and culturally congruent care in this population.

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Background: Mexican immigrants in the United States face mental health challenges, disparities, and limited access to healthcare; however, mental health promotion efforts specifically targeting this population have been insufficient. The objective of this study was to develop and test a mental health promotion intervention based on protective mental health factors and coping strategies for Mexican immigrants recruited through a free, consulate-based program in Atlanta. Material and Methods: Working with the Ventanilla de Salud program, we conducted a longitudinal study in three phases: formative research and design, pre-intervention assessment and post-implementation evaluation. The intervention was designed based on the health promotion model and interviews with stakeholders. Qualitative information was collected by semi-structured interviews with participants before and after the intervention. Quantitative outcomes were knowledge about protective factors and coping mechanisms, and psychosocial distress. Differences were assessed using the Wilcoxon non-parametrical test. Intent-to-treat analysis was conducted with all participants who signed the informed consent (carrying last observation forward), and a complete case analysis was conducted with those who attended at least 70% of the sessions and completed the post- implementation evaluation. Results: Twenty-five participants were enrolled in the intervention. Mean age was 38 years, and the majority were women. Only nine participants attended at least 70% of the sessions and completed the final evaluation. Men, those who did not complete high school, and workers in service or construction jobs were more likely to drop out. Knowledge about protective factors [pre- vs. post-intervention median (inter-quartile range) = 111 (100, 120) vs. 115 (100, 124)] and coping mechanisms [96 (85, 104) vs. 99 (90, 110)], as well as psychosocial distress [3 (2, 3) vs. 2 (2, 3)] improved after the intervention in both intent-to treat and complete case analyses (p < 0.05). Qualitative results also support improvements in targeted protective factors. Discussion: The intervention was successful in improving psychological distress among Mexican immigrants. These results support the implementation of evidence-based mental health promotion interventions among Mexican immigrants via free and familiar programs. A limitation was the high attrition; future studies should explore approaches to improve retention in this population.

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Mexicans living in the United States frequently rely upon popular healing to address a broad spectrum of physical, psychological, and spiritual ailments. They practice Mesoamerican healing ways including using herbal remedies, employing nutritional health promotion and illness remediation, over the counter pharmaceuticals, prayer and religion, and visiting expert healers. In this article, we utilize Brigitte Jordan's theory of "authoritative knowledge," to show how Mexican immigrants' ancestral and ecological-based healing knowledge travels with them through migration. Based on original ethnographic research in the Southwest borderlands, we expand an understanding of the factors that support the continuity of authoritative knowledge spatially and temporally. Mexicans' healing knowledge persisted north of the border because it (1) incorporated a wide array of healing techniques and materials that remained accessible post-migration, (2) enabled immigrants to heal according to Mesoamerican worldviews that privileged natural modalities and a holistic approach to body, mind, and spirit, and (3) remained relevant by allowing immigrants to remedy daily health stressors inherent to Mexican migration, including the border crossing, detention and deportation, and daily fear provoked by undocumented status. While lay practices have often been interpreted as problematic by medical professionals, we conclude that Mexicans' authoritative healing knowledge serves as a survival mechanism during the challenging circumstances of binational migration.

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The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program granted work authorization and protection from deportation to more than 800,000 young undocumented immigrants who arrived to the United States as minors. We estimate the association between this expansion of legal rights and birth outcomes among 72,613 singleton births to high school-educated Mexican immigrant women in the United States from June 2010 to May 2014, using birth records data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Exploiting the arbitrariness of the upper age cutoff for DACA eligibility and using a difference-in-differences design, we find that DACA was associated with improvements in the rates of low birth weight and very low birth weight, birth weight in grams, and gestational age among Mexican immigrant mothers.

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Mexican immigrants suffer a disproportionately large number of work-related injuries and deaths given their share of the workforce. Barriers of language, culture, and mistrust are often cited as factors that complicate efforts to reach these workers with occupational safety and health (OSH) interventions. By partnering with the Mexican government and its consulate network in the United States, researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health were able to assess the impact of four different information dissemination approaches (posters, passively distributed brochures, actively distributed brochures, and video kiosks) in Spanish in a five-phase study. Exit interviews conducted with Mexicans seeking consular services indicated that while nearly all respondents considered OSH to be of importance, significant differences in impact measures, such as noticing the materials and liking of content, were found when comparing the different approaches. Despite these differences, even the least effective approaches were noticed by large numbers of individuals and significantly increased their stated behavioral intentions regarding OSH. Considering all materials together, significantly more participants reported liking the materials (p < 0.001) than did not, learning something new (p < 0.01), trusting the information (p < 0.05), intending to seek out additional OSH information (p < 0.01), and intending to speak to their bosses about OSH (p < 0.05). These findings contribute to building an evidence base for moving research knowledge into practice, which is an essential, but often overlooked, element of occupational safety and health research, particularly among workers from underserved communities.

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Mexican immigrants are affected by Chagas disease (CD) in California. It is through the representation of Chagas as a rare disease that participants make sense of the disease. A positive diagnosis has meant the disruption of patients' sense of normality and self-image, as well as their memories of homeland both reproducing and challenging hegemonic and stigmatized ideas of the disease associated with rurality and poverty. Access to treatment and medical care was the major coping mechanism. Health programs on CD should consider the emotional and social impact of the disease on people's self-perceptions to develop better medical care and prevention.

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The symptomatology for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) narrowly focuses on particular diagnostic frames and a single triggering event. Such narrow definitions of trauma and recovery have been heavily critiqued by anthropologists and cultural psychiatrists for overlooking cultural complexity as well as the effects of multiple and overlapping events that may cause someone to become "traumatized" and thereby affect recovery. This article investigates how subjective reporting of traumatic experience in life history narratives relates to depressive and PTSD symptomatology, cultural idioms, and repeated traumatic experiences among low-income Mexican immigrant women in Chicago. We interviewed 121 Mexican immigrant women and collected life history narratives and psychiatric scales for depression and PTSD. Most women spoke of the detrimental effects of repeated traumatic experiences, reported depressive (49%) and PTSD (38%) symptoms, and described these experiences through cultural idioms. These data complicate the PTSD diagnosis as a discrete entity that occurs in relation to a single acute event. Most importantly, these findings reveal the importance of cumulative trauma and cultural idioms for the recognition of suffering and the limitation of diagnostic categories for identifying the needs of those who experience multiple social and psychological stressors.

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Hispanics are the largest U.S. immigrant group and Mexican Americans are the largest U.S. Hispanic population. Hispanics, particularly Mexican Americans, are among the highest risk groups for obesity, placing them at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer. Obesity lifestyle interventions incorporating Motivational Interviewing techniques and specific adaptations for the population of interest can have a significant impact on reducing health risks. This paper presents a community-engaged, culturally-sensitive nutrition and dietary counseling intervention conducted between 2016 and 2018 at the Consulate General of Mexico in New York City and reports preliminary findings regarding participant satisfaction and self-reported changes in eating and exercise habits. In addition, it describes the community and academic partners' roles and processes in program development, discusses strengths and challenges posed by a multi-sector partnership and describes adaptations made using the Behavioral Model for Vulnerable Populations to increase the program's sustainability and potential for scalability.

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