2.2.1. Demographics and Health-Related Variables

Sociodemographic, clinical, and health-related information was obtained from participants during a two and a half hour health and culture interview (see Sanchez-Johnsen et al. [17]). During the eligibility interview, the participants were asked, 'What is your ethnic background?' The response options included 'Hispanic or Latino (can you specify which Hispanic or Latino ethnic group)', along with 'African American or Black (Not Hispanic)'; 'White, Caucasian, or European (Not Hispanic)'; and five other categories. The participants were allowed to choose all that applied but had to specify that they were Mexican or Puerto Rican to continue participating in the study. In addition, the participants were asked to self-report their age, nativity, length of time lived in the U.S., highest grade completed, income, smoking status, and other socio-demographic background characteristics. For the purpose of this study, the length of time lived in the U.S. (≤20 years, 21–40 years, and 41–65 years), education (less than high school graduate, some high school education, high school graduate or equivalent/GED, some college education, and college graduate of a four-year university or graduate studies), and income (<\$10,000, \$10,000–\$24,999, \$25,000–\$49,999 and ≥\$50,000) were treated as ordinal variables. BMI was included as a categorical variable (categories defined below), and age was treated as a dichotomous variable with two categories (18–40 and 41–65 years).
