Alberto Palloni

Paradox Lost: Explaining the Hispanic Adult Mortality Advantage

We tested three competing hypotheses regarding the adult “Hispanic mortality paradox”: data artifact, migration, and cultural or social buffering effects. On the basis of a series of parametric hazard models estimated on nine years of mortality follow-up data, our results suggest that the “Hispanic” mortality advantage is a feature found only among foreign-born Mexicans and foreign born Hispanics other than Cubans or Puerto Ricans. Our analysis suggests that the foreign-born Mexican advantage can be attributed to return migration, or the “salmon-bias” effect. However, we were unable to account for the mortality advantage observed among other foreign-born Hispanics.

Social Capital and International Migration: A Test Using Information on Family Networks

This article uses a multistate hazard model to test the network hypothesis of social capital theory. The effects of family network ties on individual migration are estimated while controlling for measured and unmeasured conditions that influence migration risks for all family members. Results suggest that social network effects are robust to the introduction of controls for human capital, common household characteristics, and unobserved conditions. Estimates also confirm the ancillary hypothesis, which states that diffuse social capital distributed among community and household members strongly influences the likelihood of out‐migration, thus validating social capital theory in general and the network hypothesis in particular.

Interpreting the Paradoxical in the Hispanic Paradox

Abstract: This paper discusses problems that are common to both the epidemiologic risk‐factor approach and the demographic variable‐based approach to studying population health. We argue that there is a shared reluctance to move away from a narrow variable‐based thinking that pervades both disciplines, and a tendency to reify the multivariate linear procedures employed in both disciplines. In particular, we concentrate on the difficulties generated by classical variable‐based approaches that are especially striking when one neglects selection processes and the use of strategies to minimize its effects. We illustrate these difficulties in terms of the so‐called “Hispanic Paradox”, which refers to comparative health advantages that some Hispanic groups appear to have. We find that much of what is conceived by demographers and epidemiologists as a paradox may not be paradoxical at all.

Childhood Socioeconomic Position and Objectively Measured Physical Capability Levels in Adulthood: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background Grip strength, walking speed, chair rising and standing balance time are objective measures of physical capability that characterise current health and predict survival in older populations. Socioeconomic position (SEP) in childhood may influence the peak level of physical capability achieved in early adulthood, thereby affecting levels in later adulthood. We have undertaken a systematic review with meta-analyses to test the hypothesis that adverse childhood SEP is associated with lower levels of objectively measured physical capability in adulthood. Methods and Findings Relevant studies published by May 2010 were identified through literature searches using EMBASE and MEDLINE. Unpublished results were obtained from study investigators. Results were provided by all study investigators in a standard format and pooled using random-effects meta-analyses. 19 studies were included in the review. Total sample sizes in meta-analyses ranged from N = 17,215 for chair rise time to N = 1,061,855 for grip strength. Although heterogeneity was detected, there was consistent evidence in age adjusted models that lower childhood SEP was associated with modest reductions in physical capability levels in adulthood: comparing the lowest with the highest childhood SEP there was a reduction in grip strength of 0.13 standard deviations (95% CI: 0.06, 0.21), a reduction in mean walking speed of 0.07 m/s (0.05, 0.10), an increase in mean chair rise time of 6% (4%, 8%) and an odds ratio of an inability to balance for 5s of 1.26 (1.02, 1.55). Adjustment for the potential mediating factors, adult SEP and body size attenuated associations greatly. However, despite this attenuation, for walking speed and chair rise time, there was still evidence of moderate associations. Conclusions Policies targeting socioeconomic inequalities in childhood may have additional benefits in promoting the maintenance of independence in later life.

Sociological Criminology and the Mythology of Hispanic Immigration and Crime

Our sociological knowledge of crime is fragmented and ineffective in challenging and correcting mistaken public perceptions, for example, linking immigration and crime. These misperceptions are perpetuated by government reports of growing numbers of Hispanic immigrants in U.S. prisons. However, Hispanic immigrants are disproportionately young males who regardless of citizenship are at greater risk of criminal involvement. They are also more vulnerable to restrictive treatment in the criminal justice system, especially at the pre-trial stage. When these differences are integrated into calculations using equations that begin with observed numbers of immigrants and citizens in state prisons, it is estimated that the involvement of Hispanic immigrants in crime is less than that of citizens. These results cast doubt on the hypothesis that immigration causes crime and make more transparent the immigration and criminal justice policies that inflate the rate of Hispanic incarceration. This transparency helps to resolve a paradox in the picture of Mexican immigration to the United States, since by most measures of well-being, Mexican immigrants are found to do as well and sometimes better than citizens.

Reproducing inequalities: Luck, wallets, and the enduring effects of childhood health

In this article, I argue that research on social stratification, on intergenerational transmission of inequalities, and on the theory of factor payments and wage determination will be strengthened by studying the role played by early childhood health. I show that the inclusion of such a factor requires researchers to integrate theories in each of these fields with new theories linking early childhood health conditions and events that occur at later stages in the life course of individuals, particularly physical and mental health as well as disability and mortality. The empirical evidence I gather shows that early childhood health matters for the achievement of, or social accession to, adult social class positions. Even if the magnitude of associations is not overwhelming, it is not weaker than that found between adult social accession and other, more conventional and better-studied individual characteristics, such as educational attainment. It is very likely that the evidence presented in this article grossly underplays the importance of early childhood health for adult socioeconomic achievement.

Effects of Inter-Birth Intervals and Breastfeeding on Infant and Early Childhood Mortality

Data from the World Fertility Survey for selected Latin American countries are used to produce estimates of the simultaneous effects of breastfeeding and pace of childbearing on mortality during infancy and between first and fifth birthday. This is done by postulating models which take into account the reciprocal influences between the dynamics of birth intervals and breastfeeding. We also attempt to show that the effects vary according to several important characteristics of the child, mother, or community of residence. Finally, we investigate possible pitfalls in the inferences drawn by using alternative measurements of the main variables and by applying competing methods for the estimation of their effects. Although the results we obtain are quite robust to the definition of several indices and to the type of estimation method used, they remain partially inconclusive as a result of lack of proper controls for past and current health status of the infant.

Early childhood health, reproduction of economic inequalities and the persistence of health and mortality differentials ☆

The persistence of adult health and mortality socioeconomic inequalities and the equally stubborn reproduction of social class inequalities are salient features in modern societies that puzzle researchers in seemingly unconnected research fields. Neither can be satisfactorily explained with standard theoretical frameworks. In the domain of health and mortality, it is unclear if and to what an extent adult health and mortality disparities across socioeconomic status (SES) are the product of attributes of the positions themselves, the partial result of health conditions established earlier in life that influence both adult health and economic success, or the outcome of the reverse impact of health status on SES. In the domain of social stratification, the transmission of inequalities across generations has been remarkably resistant to satisfactory explanations. Although the literature on social stratification is by and large silent about the role played by early health status in shaping adult socioeconomic opportunities, new research on human capital formation suggests this is a serious error of omission. In this paper we propose to investigate the connections between these two domains. We use data from male respondents of the 1958 British Cohort to estimate (a) the influence of early health conditions on adult SES and (b) the contribution of early health status to observed adult health differentials. The model incorporates early conditions as determinants of traits that enhance (inhibit) social mobility and also conventional and unconventional factors that affect adult health and socioeconomic status. Our findings reveal that early childhood health plays a small, but non-trivial role as a determinant of adult SES and the adult socioeconomic gradient in health. These findings enrich current explanations of SES inequalities and of adult health and mortality disparities.

Mortality in Latin America: emerging patterns

During the mid to late 1960s and the early 1970s the process of mortality decline in Latin America appears to have experienced some setbacks. Although by no means generalized a decrease in the pace of gains in life expectancy affected countries at relatively advanced stages of their mortality transition as well as those at early stages. In addition to the deceleration of the rates of gains of life expectancy Latin American countries exhibit a peculiar age pattern of mortality in infancy and early childhood. Investigation of the structure of the causes of death reveals that the factors responsible for excess mortality at these ages are quite different in different countries. However it appears that ultimately they may be traceable to inadequate standard of living. (summary in FRE SPA)

Population and Deforestation in Costa Rica

This paper addresses a central debate in research and policy on population and environment, namely the extent to which rapid population growth is associated with the massive deforestation currently underway in the tropics. We utilize the experience of Costa Rica during the last forty years to illustrate what the main issues are, discuss the history of deforestation in that country, and present results from conventional regression methods and from the application of spatial analyses. These analyses enable us to estimate the magnitude of the relation between population and deforestation and to identify the factors that are responsible for the linkage between them.