Influence of nativity on cancer mortality among black New Yorkers

Abstract

The generally higher cancer mortality of blacks compared with whites masks even greater intraracial heterogeneity revealed through stratification by birthplace. In general, Caribbean-born blacks are at lower risk of cancer mortality than other blacks, and whites, but their advantage does not hold for prostate carcinoma, for which Caribbean-born men had the highest mortality rate.

Residential Segregation and Latino, Black and White Mortality in New York City

“…33 We adjusted for percent foreign-born in our statistical models since foreign-born persons not only may have differential mortality patterns but also may influence and/or provide contextual factors that influence health and mortality. [34][35][36][37][38][39][40] In our study, adjusting for foreign-born status attenuated the effect of percent Latino race on mortality but most particularly in Latino women. This may make it very difficult to dissociate the effects of percent Latino population from the effect of foreign-born status without information on birthplace.…”

Health Status, Health Insurance, and Health Care Utilization Patterns of Immigrant Black Men

“…A series of studies that analyzed mortality data for New York City described a consistent pattern of lower mortality rates for foreign-born Black men and women compared with US-born Blacks, and in some cases foreign-born Black men and women had lower mortality rates than USborn Whites. [15][16][17] These studies found that the all-cause mortality rate for Caribbeanborn men and women was about equal to that for White men and women who were born in the northeastern United States. Compared with White men born in the Northeast, Black men from the Caribbean had about a 25% lower rate of death from cardiovascular disease and a 50% lower rate of death from coronary heart disease but higher rates of death from stroke and hypertension.…”

Racial Context, Black Immigration and the U.S. Black/White Health Disparity

“…However, beyond gross descriptive comparisons, surprisingly little is known about the health of black immigrants, a group that shares the same racial status as U.S.-born blacks but experiences significantly better health (David and Collins 1997;Fang, Madhavan and Alderman 1997;Singh and Shiapush 2002). There are three major unknowns in our knowledge about the health of black immigrants: 1) whether the immigrant advantage applies to blacks uniformly or varies by region of birth; 2) whether the immigrant advantage is due to selectivity, sociodemographic factors, cultural characteristics, or other factors; and 3) whether the black immigrant advantage follows the same path as other groups and erodes over time.…”

“…Compared to research on U.S.-born blacks, considerably less is known about the health status of black immigrants. The few existing studies indicate that black immigrants, on average, have better health than native-born black Americans (Fang et al 1997). They have significantly lower risks of hypertension, obesity, chronic conditions, and activity limitations; and in terms of mortality and health behaviors, they have even better health profiles than U.S.-born white Americans (Singh and Siahpush 2002).…”