Are Latinos Healthier?

So there have been a few comments already about the demographics article we discussed and the strangeness of the data, but I wanted to address some of the highlights that I noticed. Hopefully it won't be overly repetitive! BTW for those who may not know, this is based on the "North Carolina Minority Health Facts" report on Hipanics/Latinos from December 2006.

First, according to the report, the leading cause of death in the Latino community is motor vehicle accidents. How could this be possible in a country where most people die of heart disease and cancer? We discussed briefly about causes: Perhaps latinos are less likely to wear seatbelts (a trip to Ecuador or Peru will illustrate that), perhaps they are packing more individuals into cars due to a shortage of drivers licences (likely due to documentation issues), and the documentation issue might make it less likely for them to call for help in the event of an accident. Another contributor may be that, due to the lesser SES, latinos are probably not driving around the latest SUVs with 15 airbags and top crash-test ratings.

But I would argue that its probably not a serious health risk or problem that needs to be addressed--Latinos may not even be more likely to be involved in a car accident. The Latino population is as much as 10-15 years younger (by population medians) than the majority. At young ages (between 15-35 years of age), motor vehicle-related fatalities are also the main cause of death for the white population.

A stranger and less explicable segment of this data report was the seemingly lower overall mortality rate for the Hispanic population. The report stated that between 2001-2005, mortality rates for Hispanics, non-Hispanic Whites, and African American non-Hispanics were 300, 668, and 849 deaths per 100,000 in the population respectively. So as an African American, your probability of dying was almost 3 times higher than a Latino between those years, despite the status of both populations as minorities. Now, just because you are a minority doesn't mean you have a worse health portfolio on average. For example, Asian-Americans have much better health on average than Non-Hispanic Whites. But based on SES, Latinos should have a lower health status than Whites, and therefore a higher mortality rate.

Is this reportedly better health profile a reflection of actual better health among Latinos? It is possible, as immigrants tend to be healthier when first arriving to the new country. But we should also be critical and skeptical, especially as this data will be used to dictate policy. Does this data misrepresent the Latino population, making them appear healthier than they are? Is it possible that fear of deportation or other ramifications are limiting researchers' access to the community, preventing accurate reporting? More importantly, would the state fund more research to determine accuracy when current data make Latinos look so healthy and inexpensive?