Hispanics have longer life expectancies

Hispanics in the United States tend to live longer than non-Hispanic whites, despite having lower incomes and education levels as well as being more likely to lack health insurance.

Researchers call this the “Hispanic mortality paradox.”

For years, researchers have questioned why Hispanics outlive non-Hispanic whites given that adult mortality is strongly associated with income and education levels.

The Washington Post reported this week that one of the first people who pointed out this paradox was Kyriacos Markides, a professor at the University of Maine. He and another professor form the University of Texas, Jeannine Coreil, explored the health of Hispanics living in the southwest in a 1986 research paper.

“Accumulating evidence suggests that the health of Hispanics is much closer to that of other whites than to the health of blacks, with whom Hispanics share socioeconomic conditions,” they wrote.

SEE ALSO: Hispanic health: What are the main issues affecting Latinos in the U.S.?

Markides and Coreil attributed this paradox to a number of cultural factors. They said Hispanic families are “close-knit” and offer much-needed support to family members battling an illness. That support, they said, “may reduce need for psychiatric treatment and protect from stress-related morbidity.”

In addition, Markides and Coreil said Hispanics—especially those who recently immigrated to the U.S.—are likely to have better health habits. For example, they’re less likely to smoke and drink.

But as Hispanics become more acculturated, Markides and Coreil said they anticipated “increases in certain risk factors including higher rates of smoking, drinking, and the adoption of a diet more conducive to cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers.” This could explain why a number of studies find that second and third generation Latinos are not as healthy as Latinos who are first generation and those who recently immigrated to the U.S.

A more recent report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirms that Hispanics are expected to live longer than other ethnic groups despite their lower socioeconomic status.

The report found that while the average life expectancy for those born in 2006 was 77.7 years, for Hispanics it was longer at 80.6 years. Meanwhile, the life expectancy for non-Hispanic whites born that same year was 78.1 years and for non-Hispanic blacks it was 72.9 years.

“Although seemingly paradoxical, these results are consistent with the findings of numerous studies which show a Hispanic mortality advantage despite this population’s lower socioeconomic status,” the report read.

SEE ALSO: ‘Promotoras’ help bridge gap between Latinos and health care providers

Another recent report by the Population Reference Bureau confirmed that the findings of the 1986 research paper are still true today. It found that older Hispanics—including foreign-born and those born in the U.S.—appear to be healthier than non-Hispanic whites as they tend to have lower levels of fatal chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease and stroke.

The report also found that because less Hispanics smoke compared to non-Hispanic whites, there are fewer smoking-related deaths among Hispanics than among non-Hispanic whites.

Interestingly, the report also found that while Hispanics tend to live longer than other ethnic groups, they also tend to spend more of those years disabled. The report noted that Hispanics and blacks “are more likely than non-Hispanic whites to be among the 10 percent of Medicare enrollees ages 65 and older who come disabled in some way before their 65th birthday.”