The Hispanic paradox , or Latino paradox , is an epidemiological finding that Hispanic and Latino Americans tend to have health outcomes that " paradoxically " are comparable to, or in some cases better than, those of their U. Low socioeconomic status is almost universally associated with worse population health and higher death rates everywhere in the world. There are multiple hypotheses which aim to determine the reason for the existence of this paradox.
Some attribute the Hispanic paradox to biases created by patterns or selection in migration. Other hypotheses around the Hispanic paradox maintain that the phenomenon is real, and is caused by sociocultural factors which characterize the Latino population. Many of these factors can be described under the more broad categories of cultural values, interpersonal context, and community context. The specific cause of the phenomenon is poorly understood, although the decisive factor appears to be place of birth, [13] [14] raising the possibility that differing birthing or neonatal practices might be involved via a lack of breastfeeding combined with birth trauma imprinting both common in American obstetrics [15] [ self-published source?
Historical differences in smoking habits by ethnicity and place of birth may explain much of the paradox, at least at adult ages. Though they are often at lower socioeconomic standing, most Hispanic groups, excepting Puerto Ricans, demonstrate lower or equal levels of mortality to their non-Hispanic White counterparts. The death rates of Hispanics to non-Hispanic whites was found to exceed 1.
When controlling for socioeconomic factors, the health advantage gap for Mexican Americans , the largest Hispanic population in the US, increases noticeably. Hispanics do not have a mortality advantage over non-Hispanic Whites in all mortality rates; they have higher rates for mortality from liver disease , cervical cancer , AIDS , homicide males , and diabetes.
Another important indicator of health is the infant mortality rate , which is also either equal or better in Hispanic Americans than in non-Hispanic Americans. A study by Hummer, et al. According to Alder and Estrove , the more socioeconomically advantaged individuals are, the better their health.
