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Hispanic women who identify as white are healthier than those who don't

Date:
March 10, 2016
Source:
SAGE
Summary:
Hispanic women who identify as Black or another race have worse functional health than their counterparts who identify as White, according to new research.
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Hispanic women who identify as Black or another race have worse functional health than their counterparts who identify as White, according to new research. This research is part of a new special issue of Research on Aging (ROA, a journal from SAGE Publishing) focused on aging and health among Hispanic populations in the United States and in Latin America.

Looking at data from 42,908 U.S. Hispanic women, ages 18-85, from 1997 to 2011, Chinn and Hummer examined the relationship between race and certain functional limitations related to the body -- inabilities or difficulties in performing daily activities such as bending or kneeling, walking a quarter mile, grasping objects, etc. The researchers found that:

  • Among those born in the U.S., Hispanic women who identify as Black have a 31% higher rate of functional limitations than those who identify as White while those who identify as other races have a 22% higher rate of functional limitations.
  • Among the women born outside of the U.S., Hispanic women who identify as White have a 1.5 % lower rate of functional limitations relative to other race Hispanic women and a 2.6% lower rate of functional limitations relative to Hispanic women who identify as Black Hispanic, despite different geographic or socioeconomic conditions.
  • Over 25% of the U.S.-born Hispanic women who identify as Black reported living below the poverty line while about 16% of U.S.-born Hispanic women who identify as White or other races reported living in poverty.
  • U.S.-born Hispanic women living below the poverty level had a 74% higher rate of functional limitations compared to Hispanic women not living in poverty.

Chinn and Hummer continued, "Racial identity--or at least the distinction between identifying as Black or White--may have particular salience for the health of Hispanic adults among the second and higher generations. One strong possibility for this is that U.S.-born Black Hispanics simply have greater exposure to the harsh reality of being Black in American society than foreign-born Black Hispanics."


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Materials provided by SAGE. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Juanita J. Chinn and Robert A. Hummer. Racial Disparities in Functional Limitations Among Hispanic Women in the United States. Research on Aging, March 2016 DOI: 10.1177/0164027515620244

Cite This Page:

SAGE. "Hispanic women who identify as white are healthier than those who don't." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 March 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160310082558.htm>.
SAGE. (2016, March 10). Hispanic women who identify as white are healthier than those who don't. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 2, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160310082558.htm
SAGE. "Hispanic women who identify as white are healthier than those who don't." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160310082558.htm (accessed December 2, 2024).

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