Race, ethnicity, and self-reported hypertension: Analysis of data from the National Health Interview Survey, 1997-2005 (2009)
In some public health circles, it’s believed that Hispanics, despite facing certain societal odds (e.g., lower education, lower income, precarious immigration status), have protective factors that cause them to be healthier than the average population, in a number of health indicators. This is known as the Hispanic paradox.
Dr. Borrell analyzed the survey responses of 271,339 adults, of which 15 per cent identified as Hispanic (n = 40,635). She examined the relationship between race and hypertension. (Being “Hispanic” is an ethnicity; someone could be white Hispanic or black Hispanic, with white and black referring to race.)
Borrell sought to answer whether lower rates of hypertension in US Hispanics were mediated by race. In other words, are black Hispanics and white Hispanics at equal risk for hypertension, or is there a disproportionate burden on black Hispanics akin to that seen in non-Hispanic Blacks?
While Hispanics as a whole have less hypertension than non-Hispanic Blacks and Whites, Dr. Borrell found that black Hispanics bear a disproportionate burden of hypertension, when compared to white Hispanics. This finding, along with the analysis of several other risk factors and potential confounders (e.g., demographics, access to care, socioeconomics, biometrics, health behaviors, etc.), supports the idea that race-related stress has a detrimental effect on health.
Borrell’s work also showed that there isn’t always an inverse relationship between hypertension and education. In fact, among non-Hispanic Blacks, the prevalence of hypertension increased with level of education. Hypertension and education interacted differently, depending on race. As far as gender, the longstanding finding that hypertension is more prevalent in women held true.
Relevance to documentary: That the protective factors of Hispanic ethnicity are weaker in black Hispanics shows that a positive ethnic factor cannot inoculate all of its members from racism. It’ll be important to interviewing a racially diverse sample of Hispanics.
Though there are white Hispanics whose skin color is similar to that of non-Hispanics Whites, many of the Hispanics that identify as white may actually be darker (e.g., olive) skinned. But since there is no brown category… It would be interesting to explore the difference in prevalence of discrimination among black, brown, and white Hispanics. And what about brown Hispanics who identify as white because they don’t identify as black, how differently do they experience discrimination compared to white Hispanics?
Link (Google Scholar)