Is Being Born in America Bad for Your Health?

*The Centers for Disease Control released the findings of a first-ever, national study on Latino health. Among many things, they found that Latinos have a higher mortality rate due to diabetes and liver disease then non-Latinos. Also, in health matters Latinos are not a monolithic group. There are subsets of Latinos that behave differently than the rest of the community. The higher mortality for native-born Latinos is telling. VL

By John Tozzi, Bloomberg Business

People from Latin America come to the U.S. seeking economic opportunity, but they shouldn’t count on better health for their children.

New research published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Hispanics born in the United States have poorer health by several measures than Hispanics born abroad who immigrate to the U.S. They are likelier to be obese and smoke cigarettes and to suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer. The 57 million Hispanics in the U.S. make up 18 percent of the population, the largest minority group in the country.

Hispanic health trends in the U.S. present a bit of a puzzle for epidemiologists. As a demographic group, Hispanics are similar to American blacks in factors that normally affect health—education, income, and poverty—but their health outcomes more closely resemble those of whites. This is known as the Hispanic paradox: lower mortality despite lower social and economic status.

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