Acculturating to Multiculturalism: A New Dimension of Dietary Acculturation among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Women in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA

Abstract Dietary acculturation is the process by which diet and dietary practises prevalent in a new environment are adopted and/or those from the environment of origin are retained or changed. Knowledge gaps exist on chracterising dietary acculturation among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities (AANHPI), despite rapid population growth the USA. This study characterise dietary patterns in a sample representative of AANHPI on key demographic characteristics. Data were from a 2013–2014 population-based case-control study in the San Francisco Bay Area, U.S. Survey items were adapted from dietary acculturation scales developed for Chinese, Filipinx, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, and Asian Indian and Pakistani populations. Validated measures assessed social networks, social standing, discrimination and immigration experiences. A principle components factor analysis characterise dietary patterns of acculturation. Three dietary patterns were identified: “Asian,” “Western,” and a distinct “Multicultural” factor. Respondents reporting a high-Asian diet tended to also report smaller social networks, higher levels of stress, and, among those born outside of the U.S., an educational standing that was better before immigration. Respondents who ate a high-Western diet tended to also report the highest level of discrimination. Those reporting a high-Multicultural diet tended to report higher neighbourhood collective efficacy. The finding of a distinct “Multicultural” factor beyond the typical “Asian” and “Western” factors may reflect the multidirectional nature of dietary acculturation, in which origin and destination cultures interact in complex ways and where foods from multiple ethnicities intermix.