The paradox:
In the face of higher rates of poverty and lower rates of education and employment, Hispanics live 2 ½ years longer than Anglos, and in some states, nearly eight years longer than African-Americans. The effect is more pronounced in immigrants but also applies to Hispanics born in the U.S.
Hispanics also seem to survive and recover from disease quicker than non-Hispanic whites.
Hispanics are less likely to get mammograms and colon cancer screenings, but their survival after a cancer diagnosis is superior to non-Hispanic whites.
Answer: All you need is love.
Most of the theories proposed to explain the paradox lead back to family — and, in essence, love. Family is a hugely important part of Hispanic culture and provides social support as well as distinct roles and duties to individuals.
Source: Dallas Morning News.
“In the same way that poverty is proven to be bad for your health, studies have shown that loving family and social networks are good for your health.”
Hispanics are also more likely to face higher rates of poverty. So this would indicate that love is more attributed to good health than poverty is to poor health.
Maybe poor people live longer
Sounds like the Beatles had it right all along.
Beatles got it from the hispanics
“Family is a hugely important part of Hispanic culture and provides social support as well as distinct roles and duties to individuals.”
At its most basic, it does make sense how one could draw this conclusion. But with very little data, it cannot be taken very seriously.
How can you develop data and measure how much each ethnic group loves each other?
Are Hispanic households also less likely to be single parent households? Or have lower divorce rates? You can’t really generalize that all Hispanic families are the same in their uniting love and support.
How do you quantify love
Emotions and candy
As a Hispanic, family is a key portion of our life. Most Hispanic families are closer than families of different cultures. We tend to rely on one another and family support helps us overcome difficulties.
Also our culture, in general, tends to worry about those around us. We are open to help another person even if we don’t know them.
That could be the key
My family is the same way
This Hispanic agrees.
Not only love is what make Hispanics live longer is their tendency to be happy. Latin cultures normally have ways to lower stress and live life without much worries.
A positive attitude towards life, even in harsh times, and a smile in their face is common for Hispanics. Reason they live longer.
McDonalds puts smiles on peoples faces! Hispanics love mcdonalds!
You really want the world to see that post?
I realize this is tangential to the post, but I find the term “Anglo” used to refer to people of non-Hispanic, non-African, non-Asian, non-American Indian descent insulting. I am 0% Anglo, but that seems to be the latest move in the politics of race – to lump people like me under this term. If my family were from England, I wouldn’t mind being referred to as Anglo. There is nothing wrong with being Anglo. However, it’s insulting to those of us not of Anglo background to have our actual heritage ignored. How about European-American? That would be more accurate. I realize it’s not convenient for certain political agendas, but I’m no more Anglo than someone of Hispanic, African, Asian, or Native American descent.
I think ‘Anglo’ refers more to language than to ancestry. Do does ‘Hispanic’ for that matter– not many Hispanics are actually Spanish.
People who are physically active living longer. Hoocoodanode?
Considering the rates of iatrogenic death one must at least consider that it might be due to a lack of access to healthcare.
Lower tobacco use by Hispanics may explain most of the life expectancy difference.
http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2013/us-hispanics-life-expectancy.aspx
“But what is at the root of this better health, particularly among the foreign born? Lower tobacco use among Hispanics is an important explanation, argue demographers Laura Blue, of Princeton University, and Andrew Fenelon, of the University of Pennsylvania. Their analysis suggests that smoking could explain close to three-quarters of the difference in life expectancy at age 50 between Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites.2 Only a small share of Hispanics smoke at all, and those who do tend to smoke fewer cigarettes than do non-Hispanics white smokers.
***
When they eliminated all smokers from their analysis, foreign-born Hispanics’ life expectancy did not significantly exceed that for non-Hispanic whites. In addition, U.S.-born Hispanics’ life expectancy dropped below that for non-Hispanic whites.”
This article really minimizes the continuing debate over whether the Hispanic paradox actually exists. Findings depend upon the subgroup of Hispanics analyzed, and on the completeness of the mortality follow-up, no small problem when lots of invalid social security numbers are floating around, Finally, Hispanic is itself such a fuzzy notion that some researchers suggest that misclassification biases the results.
For an example of a contrary finding see Pinheiro et al. Cancer Survival Among Latinos, 2011.