Immigration vulnerability and oral health among Latinx/a/o people

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT There are over 62 million Latinx/a/o people living in the United States (U.S.) making them the largest minoritized ethnoracial group in the nation. This large and growing group of people faces considerable disparities in oral health, particularly among its adult population. For example, data from the National Health

and Nutrition examination survey for 2009-10 and 2012-12 shows that Latinx/a/o adults had the highest prevalence of periodontal disease among adults of all ethnoracial groups. Studies examining the factors driving oral health disparities within this population group have largely focused on the complex phenomenon of

acculturation, which broadly refers to the process of adopting U.S. mainstream culture’s attitudes, values, customs, beliefs, and behaviors. However, cultural explanations of oral health disparities through the lens of individual-level cultural changes ignore the role of structural factors, such as immigration policy, in

(re)producing oral health disparities over the life course and across generations. Therefore, the purpose of the proposed study is to examine how the daily manifestations of perceived vulnerability due to immigration policy shapes the oral health of Latinx/a/o adults. Using a mixed-methods approach, our specific aims to advance this

undertheorized area of research are to: (1) examine the association between self-perceived immigration policy legal vulnerability and clinical and self-reported oral health and (2) explore the racialization experiences of Latinx/a/o immigrant adults and their U.S. born co-ethnics to identify the sources of immigration policy

vulnerability that shape their oral health. The knowledge generated from this study is the first step towards understanding the mechanisms by which the structural racialization of Latinx/a/o/ people via immigration policy affects their oral health. This study is innovative as it will help redirect disparity-reduction efforts in the oral

health field away from the prominent individual-level cultural framework and towards the broader socio-legal regimes that sustain inequity. This application will also contribute to the NIDCR’s 2021-2026 strategic plan goal to advance the scientific methods to quantify disparities and inequities in dental, oral, and craniofacial health

and disease.