Latin America
(Photo : Pinterest)

A new study suggests that Latin Americans, regardless if they live in a Latin American country or in the United States, are less likely to die prematurely compared to non-hispanic Americans, U.S. News reports.

There have been many studies conducted about the life expectancy of Latinos. In some cases, it was found that Latinos have a shorter life expectancy compared to non-hispanic Americans. However, myths regarding this have almost all been debunked as a new study suggests that Latin Americans have longer life expectancy.

In a new study by JAMA Network Open on Wednesday, they found that premature mortality rates among U.S. Latino populations are lower compared to U.S. African-American and American populations. This means that premature mortality rates among Latinos in the United States and in several Latin American countries are lower compared to Americans.

Moreover, the recent study conducted is also supported by an analytical study conducted by researchers from the National Institutes of Health. They analyzed the death of 22 million individuals aged 20 to 64 years old from 2001 to 2015. This is a longitudinal study which means that researchers invested effort by conducting the study in a long period. They included the United States and other Latin American countries in the study like Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, and more. In administering the study, they split them into four groups according to their race and ethnicity. These are Americans or whites, African Americans, Latinos, and Puerto Ricans.

The researchers found that Latin American countries and U.S. Latinas have lower death rate in the following major causes of deaths compared to Americans and African-American women in the United States:

  • Respiratory of digestive diseases or circulatory
  • Diabetes or endocrine disorders
  • tumors
  • External death like assaults and accidental deaths

The same result was also obtained for male Latinos most especially for the Peruvians. They found out that Peruvians have a lower death rate compared to male white Americans while the African-American men have the second-highest death rate, they are just ahead of people from Belize.

Dr. Yingxi Chen, the lead researcher of the study, told the U.S. News through an email that "Understanding how health patterns differ could provide important insights as to which behaviors contribute to long life."

The study also found that there is a decline of deaths in terms of heart disease and cancer among Latinos regardless of gender in Latin America. However, even though cancer remains to be the major cause of death of women in Latin American countries along with violence and deaths but this has decreased slowly. Subsequently, the cause of premature death in Latin America and the United States vary.

One of the researchers in the recently published study said: "Concerning increases in the rates of premature mortality among certain populations in the Americas suggest a need to continue efforts against the major causes of death as well as to address emerging causes, such as obesity, with aggressive efforts."

Moreover, in a commentary study from the researchers of New York University, they said that death rates also vary based on the social and economic landscape of a country.