Mortality of foreign-born and US-born Hispanic adults at younger ages: a reexamination of recent patterns

Abstract

Objectives: We sought to determine whether mortality rates among immigrant and US-born Hispanic young adults were higher or lower compared with non-Hispanic Whites. We also sought to identify which causes of death accounted for the differences in mortality rates between groups. Measures. We used Texas and California vital registration data from 1999 to 2001 linked to 2000 census denominators. We calculated cause-specific, indirectly standardized rates and ratios and determined excess/deficit calculations comparing mortality rates among US- and foreign-born Hispanic men and women with rates among non-Hispanic White men and women.

Results: Mortality rates were substantially lower among Hispanic immigrant men (standardized mortality ratio [SMR]=0.79) and women (SMR=0.59) than among non-Hispanic White men and women. Most social and behavioral and chronic disease causes in Texas and California other than homicide were noteworthy contributors to this pattern. Mortality rates among US-born Hispanics were similar to or exceeded those among non-Hispanic Whites (male SMR=1.17, female SMR=0.91).

Conclusions: Mortality rates among younger Hispanic immigrants in Texas and California were lower than rates among non-Hispanic Whites. This pattern was not observed among US-born Hispanics, however.