Past studies showed a health benefit of ethnic density for Hispanics, but the reverse for African-Americans; these results were in keeping with what is known as the Hispanic Paradox: that even with similar levels of socioeconomic status, Hispanics have comparable, or in some cases better, health outcomes than White Americans. Adding a wrinkle to this rule, Alvarez and Dr. Levy are the first to find a positive effect for ethnic-density among African-Americans.
Segregation is supposed to be a bad thing but African-American and Mexican-American seniors living in communities where their neighbors are most like them get cancer or heart disease less than their counterparts in a more diverse neighborhood.
Counter to prevailing notions that diversity is necessary, researchers found that “living in the barrio or ethnically dense communities isn’t always bad for your health,” says Kimberly Alvarez, a PhD student at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “For older minority adults, it’s actually the reverse: living in an ethnically dense neighborhood is beneficial when it comes to heart disease and cancer,” adding that these are the two most common chronic conditions and causes of death among minority older adults.
The researchers used survey data to look at health outcomes of 2,367 Mexican-American and 2,790 African-Americans over age 65 living in communities with high percentages of African-Americans (New Haven, Conn. and north-central North Carolina) and Mexican-Americans (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas). Among African-Americans, those living in a county with an ethnic density of 50% or more (that is, where half or more of the population shared the same background) were 46% less likely to report doctor-diagnosed heart disease and 77% less likely to report cancer than those who lived in an ethnic density of less than 25%. Mexican Americans living in a county with an ethnic density of 50% or more were 33% and 62% less likely to report heart disease and cancer, respectively, than those who lived in an ethnic density of less than 25%.
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