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Type 2 diabetes is increasing rapidly in the United States and Latin America and contributes significantly to the rise in health care spending. Diabetes increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, renal failure and blindness, and leads to other complications. Type 2 diabetes and its complications can be delayed in high-risk individuals through a healthy lifestyle and ongoing medical care. Some research suggests a relationship between diabetes and other underlying metabolic conditions, either as predisposing factors or as adverse outcomes of occupational exposures in farmworkers. UC Cooperative Extension can have a greater impact on the health and safety of California's workforce by filling in research gaps and strengthening collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose is to describe the development and validation of a tool to measure the degree of past food insecurity in an immigrant US population., Design: Focus group discussions and a structured interview. As a first step, focus group discussions were conducted among immigrant Latino mothers. Based on these discussions, an 8-item tool was developed and pilot-tested in a convenience sample of mothers., Setting: California., Participants: Twenty-two low-income Latino mothers with children, ages 4 to 5 years, in the focus groups and 85 low-income Latino and white mothers of young children in the structured interviews., Analyses: Constant comparative analysis, Cronbach alpha, Spearman correlations, Chi-square, and Kruskal-Wallis test., Results: Internal consistency of the remaining 7 items was good (Cronbach alpha = 0.84). Evidence of convergent validity included significant correlations between past food insecurity and maternal education (r = -0.45, p < .0001), crowding in the mother's childhood household (r = +0.30, p < .006), and past food insufficiency (r = +0.74, p < .0001). Foreign-born Latino mothers reported significantly greater levels of past food insecurity than US-born mothers, demonstrating discriminant validity (p < .01)., Conclusions and Implications: This tool may be useful to determine how past deprivation influences current food choices and other nutrition-related behaviors in low-income Latino immigrants.

Objective: To examine the relationship between food insecurity and food supplies in Latino households., Design: Cross-sectional survey, conducted February to May 2001., Setting: Six California counties., Participants: Convenience sampling was used to recruit 274 low-income Latino families with preschool children from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), Head Start, and other community-based organizations. Complete data were available for 256 families., Variables Measured: Food security, household food scores., Analysis: Pearson correlations, Kruskal-Wallis test, and logistics regression. Significance level at P <.05., Results: Controlling for maternal education, food insecurity over the past 3 months was associated with lower household food supplies: dairy, r = -.18, P <.01; fruit, r = -.36, P <.001; grains, r = -.27, P <.0001; meats, r = -.22, P <.001; snack foods, r = -.23, P <.001; and vegetables, r = -.29, P <.001., Conclusions and Implications: In Latino households, greater food insecurity is associated with a lower variety of most foods, particularly fruits and vegetables. Future research in Latino households should explore the effects of seasonal food insecurity and household food shortages on food intake of individual household members, especially young children.