The research highlights several major findings about Latino health in the United States.
First, Latinos have maintained a life expectancy advantage over White individuals for much of the past two decades, but that advantage coexists alongside clear health disadvantages, including higher rates of obesity, diabetes, disability, and functional limitations.
Pebley explained that “these disadvantages appear to be due primarily to social factors like lower income, less education, more people working at physically challenging and hazardous jobs, and poorer access to health insurance and healthcare.”
Second, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed how fragile the mortality advantage can be. During 2020 and 2021, Latinos experienced steep losses in life expectancy, linked to social and economic vulnerabilities such as crowded multigenerational households, frontline work with high exposure risk, lower-quality healthcare access, and limited Spanish-language health information.
Third, Goldman and Pebley found that higher socioeconomic status does not appear to improve health for Latinos to the same extent that it does for Whites.
“It’s complex. Part of it may be structural and interpersonal discrimination in employment, as well as access to health insurance, quality health care, and a good education. But socioeconomic differences in health, health behaviors in countries of origin and the US, and selective in- and out- migration by socioeconomic status and health also play a role.” Pebley says.
Lastly, the study found that Latino workers, specifically first-generation immigrant workers, are more likely to hold physically demanding jobs than other groups, which can result in elevated rates of functional limitations and disability later in life.
