By Carmen Sesin -
NBC News
A recent study questions a phenomenon known as the Latino Epidemiological Paradox, which consists of promoting the idea that Hispanics have better health rates than non-Hispanic whites.
Researchers at the University of Miami recently found that according to a National Institutes of Health data set,
Latinos had a higher, not lower, prevalence of cardiovascular disease than white people
and, in some cases, their outcomes. they were also taller than those of black people.
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"We decided to look at this data to show
the Latino paradox...
We chose heart disease because it's one of the leading causes of death and that's one of the areas that has been talked about a lot about the Latino paradox," said Olveen Carrasquillo, dean of clinical and translational sciences at the University of Miami Health System.
"And it turns out that we found the opposite. Latinos have higher rates of heart disease than whites. In the case of Hispanic men, it is even a little higher than for blacks," says the specialist.
The idea of a Latino epidemiological paradox arose because Latinos have a higher life expectancy than non-Hispanic whites, despite being poorer and having less access to education and health care on average.
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According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latinos had lower mortality rates for most leading causes of death between 2009 and 2013, as well as a lower incidence of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
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The new study, published this month in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, is based on a national data set called All of Us, which is one of the largest sources of biomedical data in the US.
It includes health data from various participants across the country, including more than 40,000 Latinos.
Carrasquillo is the principal investigator for the All of Us Research Program at the University of Miami.
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"I've been teaching about the Latino paradox for 30 years. But, beyond mortality, there aren't many studies that show the Latino paradox to be true," Carrasquillo said.
"I think many of us get excited about the theory that Latinos are healthier. But it turns out that there was never much data to support that paradox," the expert explained.
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However, Carrasquillo states that more research needs to be done.
As a next step, his team plans to investigate whether there are differences in health among various Latino subgroups.
Later, they also intend to investigate other diseases, such as cancer and diabetes, among Latinos.
The All of Us program is still recruiting participants.
The data set currently includes more than 300,000 survey results, 200,000 electronic health records and 11,000 data collected from wearable devices.
