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Measuring dietary acculturation in Japanese Americans with the use of confirmatory factor analysis of food-frequency data ^1,2,3

¹ From the Department of Epidemiology and Institute for Public Health Genetics, School of Public Health and Community Medicine (BLP, MAA, BF, and CMH), Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine (PKC); Northwest Lipid Research Clinic, School of Medicine (BMR); Department of Anthropology (DLL); and Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine (WYF), University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Background: Epidemiologic evidence suggests that dietary changes associated with acculturation to a Western diet may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes in Japanese Americans.

Objective: We hypothesized that dietary acculturation patterns could be measured by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) by using a culturally sensitive food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ). We examined the utility of the estimated factor scores by testing for associations with diabetes and 2 risk factors for diabetes—body mass index (BMI; in kg/m²) and C-reactive protein (CRP).

Design: By using cross-sectional data from a sample of 219 Nisei (second-generation Japanese American; mean age 70 y) and 277 Sansei (third-generation Japanese American; mean age 42 y) participants in the Japanese American Family Study, we conducted CFA on 5 items characteristic of a Japanese diet and 4 items characteristic of a Western diet. The resulting factor scores were examined for associations with diabetes by using logistic regression and for associations with BMI and CRP by using linear regression.

Results: CFA confirmed the presence of Japanese and Western food factors. The Nisei had a significantly higher average factor score for the Japanese food factor and significantly lower average factor score for the Western food factor than did the Sansei. In Sansei persons, but not in Nisei persons, the Western food factor score was significantly associated with plasma CRP concentration (P = 0.02), BMI (P = 0.02), and diabetes (P = 0.001).

Conclusions: In this Japanese American sample, dietary acculturation can be estimated by using CFA on FFQ data. Future studies should investigate the effects of dietary acculturation on disease risk independent of other lifestyle factors.

Key Words: Dietary acculturation • Japanese American Family Study • confirmatory factor analysis • food-frequency questionnaire • FFQ • culture • Western diet • dietary patterns • diabetes • C-reactive protein • CRP

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