Question

Refer to Table 5-3 on page 99. What are possible reasons for the observed differences in death rates between those of Hispanic origin and those not of Hispanic origin?

Answer 1

Ans) Lifespan variability differs by race/ethnicity among U.S. adults, with Hispanics exhibiting lower variability in addition to higher life expectancy relative to whites.

- Decomposition of racial/ethnic variance differences along both cause-of-death and spread-allocation-timing axes identified the sources of the Hispanic paradox in adult mortality and reveals strategies that could reduce lifespan variability for both groups.

- Our results suggest that this will not be a simple task and will require a multifaceted approach that addresses multiple sources of racial/ethnic mortality differences.

- For instance, two of the primary contributors to Hispanics’ lower dispersion relative to whites are lower incidence (allocation effects) of lung cancer, suicide, accidental poisoning, and other external causes and less variability (spread effects) in heart disease deaths.

- Not only do these causes have very different etiologies and age patterns, but they also contribute to overall variance through different components.

- In order to diminish the health inequality represented by lifespan variability among all U.S. racial/ethnic groups and, ultimately, to close the lifespan variability gap between the United States and other high-income countries, policies should focus in particular on averting premature, young adult deaths.

- This strategy would simultaneously increase life expectancy and decrease lifespan variability, whereas strategies aimed at extending length of life among the oldest-old increases a population’s life expectancy but at the expense of increasing lifespan variability.

- Despite Hispanics’ success in achieving higher life expectancy and lower lifespan variability relative to whites, they remain a socioeconomically disadvantaged group.

- Lifespan variability serves as an indicator of certainty regarding when individuals will die, which can facilitate how individuals and institutions set aside sufficient savings for retirement and later-life health expenses.

- Although Hispanics have lower lifespan variability compared with whites, leading to greater certainty in when they will die, they have fewer financial resources. For instance, Hispanics earn lower wages than whites on average throughout their working lifetimes and hold less than 10 cents of wealth for every dollar of wealth held by whites.

- Furthermore, Hispanics live longer, on average, than whites and thus are required to stretch their much smaller level of assets over a longer period of old age. In sum, Hispanics exhibit longer lives and more certainty in how long they will live, but they possess fewer resources to sustain themselves for a longer period of old-age dependence.

- Research and policy attention must address closing socioeconomic disparities between Hispanics and whites so that future cohorts of Hispanics achieve long and healthy lives.