Self-rated health among hispanic vs non-hispanic white adults: The San Luis Valley health and aging study

S.M. Shetterly, J. Baxter, L.D. Mason and R.F. Hamman

American Journal of Public Health, 1996, vol. 86, issue 12, 1798-1801

Abstract: Objectives. This study investigated whether objective health indicators explained lower self-rated health among Hispanics compared with non-Hispanic whites. It also considered socioeconimic and cultural explanations. Methods. Health ratings of 429 Hispanics and 583 non-Hispanic W White age 20 throgh 74 were analyzed with logistic regression. Results. Illness indicators were found to be strongly correlated with self-rated health in both ethnic groups, but after such markers were controlled for, Hispanics remained 3.6 times more likely to report fair or poor health (95% confidence interval - 2.4, 5.3). adjustment for socioeconomic factors accounted for a portion of Hispanics' lower health rating, but the strongest explanatory factor was acculaturation. Conclusions. Because of cultural and economic influences on definitions of health, ethnic differences in self-assessed healths mays not accurately reflected patterns resulting from objeetive health measurements.

Date: 1996
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.86.12.1798

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.86.12.1798_7

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.86.12.1798

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().