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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: AJPH.2006.091892v1 97/7/1305    most recent Submit a response View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (12) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Crimmins, E. M. Articles by Seeman, T. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Crimmins, E. M. Articles by Seeman, T. Related Collections Epidemiology Hispanics/Latinos Other Race/Ethnicity

Eileen M. Crimmins, PhD, Jung Ki Kim, PhD, Dawn E. Alley, PhD, Arun Karlamangla, MD, PhD and Teresa Seeman, PhD

Eileen Crimmins and Jung Ki Kim are with the Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Dawn Alley is with the Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Arun Karlamangla and Teresa Seeman are with the Division of Geriatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Eileen Crimmins, Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0191 (e-mail: crimmin{at}usc.edu).

Objectives. We examined biological risk profiles by race, ethnicity, and nativity to evaluate evidence for a Hispanic paradox in measured health indicators.

Methods. We used data on adults aged 40 years and older (n = 4206) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (1999–2002) to compare blood pressure, metabolic, and inflammatory risk profiles for Whites, Blacks, US-born and foreign-born Hispanics, and Hispanics of Mexican origin. We controlled for age, gender, and socioeconomic status.

Results. Hispanics have more risk factors above clinical risk levels than do Whites but fewer than Blacks. Differences between Hispanics and Whites disappeared after we controlled for socioeconomic status, but results differed by nativity. After we controlled for socioeconomic status, the differences between foreign-born Hispanics and Whites were eliminated, but US-born Mexican Americans still had higher biological risk scores than did both Whites and foreign-born Mexican Americans.

Conclusions. There is no Hispanic paradox in biological risk profiles. However, our finding that foreign-born Hispanics and Whites had similar biological risk profiles, but US-born Mexican Americans had higher risk, was consistent with hypothesized effects of migrant health selectivity (healthy people in-migrating and unhealthy people out-migrating) as well as some differences in health behaviors between US-born and foreign-born Hispanics.

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