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A group of local Hispanics is among several other experimental groups across the nation being studied to determine the racial / ethnic group’s health conditions and risk factors in relation to acculturation.
As the Hispanic Community Health Study / Study of Latinos completed its recruitment stage, principal investigator and professor at the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State, Dr. Greg Talavera, hopes to demystify the “Hispanic Paradox.” The investigation refers to three hypotheses that could be further explained, considered or dismissed with the findings of said study.
According to the Pew Research Center, the Hispanic population in the U.S. will triple by 2050. The projected increase suggests Hispanics will constitute 29 percent of the overall population.
“Latinos are now the largest and fastest growing racial / ethnic group in the United States and our understanding of their overall health and welfare is [little] in comparison to other groups,” Talavera said.
HCHS / SOL is a multicentered epidemiologic study with field centers in the Bronx, N.Y., Chicago, Miami and San Diego. The research study is sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and six other institutes and centers within the National Institutes of Health. Once completed, it will provide information about the health status and disease burden of Hispanics, their nutritional practices and the role of acculturation on lifestyle and health, according to a press release sent in December.
The study is a collaboration between SDSU, San Ysidro Health Center and the University of California, San Diego. It recruited 16,000 participants ages 18-74. The study will include an annual follow-up phone interview that will be conducted throughout the study to determine health outcomes.
According to the press release, individuals underwent an extensive examination to assess risk factors that play a protective or harmful role in cardiovascular and respiratory health conditions, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.
According to Talavera, Hispanics suffer lower rates of heart attacks and strokes in comparison to the general population, even though they suffer more from diabetes, obesity, poverty and lack of health insurance.
“It’s kind of a paradox,” Talavera said. “It’s not expected because you would think that a racial / ethnic group like Hispanics should be suffering higher rates of heart attacks and strokes.”
According to Talavera there are three main hypotheses attempting to explain the paradox. One has to do with the large number of immigrants the Hispanic group represents. Many times when patients get seriously ill, they return to their country of origin and doctors here never find out what occurred to them. On record, they become epidemiologically immortal, according to Talavera. The so-called “paradox” could just be a counting error.
The second hypothesis is that there could be something genetic that protects them from cardiovascular disease. Talavera said the third possibility could be the racial / ethnic group’s strong belief in family and the social support they receive throughout their lives. This could avert the risk factors preventing the heart attack.
A number of ancillary studies are currently in the works. These include the SOL Youth Study, that will focus on children ages 8-14. According to a summary of the study, participants will undergo a single three-hour clinical examination, seven days of physical activity monitoring and a second dietary recall between five and 45 days after the clinical examination. One of the several aims of the study is to test the influence of children’s acculturation and parent-child differences in acculturation on children’s lifestyle behaviors and their cardiometabolic risk profile. The study is said to accurately represent the main HCHS / SOL study.
“(HCHS / SOL) has medical, genetic and psychosocial information, which is one of the reasons why the study is so important to Hispanics in the United States and elsewhere,” Talavera said. “When looking at such a large sample we can look at those dimensions to help explain and predict these conditions.”