Chicano Health Demographics
Romeo Rodriguez, assistant instructor of Chicano Studies at UT-Austin, discusses his research on the mortality rate of Chicanos in comparison to Anglos and African Americans. Rodriguez seeks to understand how ethnicity and socioeconomic factors account for death rates and by extension the overall health of Chicanos.
Most of the literature on mortality focuses on the disparities between blacks and whites because for a long time Chicano vital statistics were classified under the information for whites. Rodriguez explains that this categorization is inappropriate because it artificially increases the death rate for Anglos and thus decreases the gap between the mortality of blacks and whites. Moreover, socioeconomic factors are a major contributor to mortality rates, and Chicanos and Anglos do not have the same socioeconomic level.
Rodriguez then discusses some of his findings, including the staggering statistic that the death rate among Chicanas was 140% higher than for Anglo women. Rodriguez also discusses how his research reveals differences in life spans between Anglos and Chicanos and men and women and he discusses some of the more prevalent causes of death. Rodriguez explains we need more research on the mortality and morbidity of Chicanos so that we can begin to identify how to better meet Chicano health care needs.
KEYWORDS
African AmericansAnglos
Ascribed Racial Status
Birth Rates
Bracero Program
Cancer
Caucasian Race Resolution
Causes of Death
Census
Chicano Access to Health Care
Chicano Life spans
Chronic Illness
Crude Death Rate
Cultural Barriers to Health Care
Death
Death Rate
Demography
Department of Health, Education and Welfare
Differential morbidity
Differential mortality
Disease
Elderly
Epidemiology
Ethnic Disparities in Health Care
Ethnicity and Health
Gender Disparities
Gender Disparities in Health Care
Health Care Delivery
Health Indicators for Chicanos
Health Status
Heart Disease among Chicanos
HEW
Illness
Infant Mortality
Migration
Morbidity
Mortality Rates
National Institute of Health
Preventive Medicine
Public Health
Racial Categories
Rio Grande Valley
San Antonio
Socioeconomic Factors and Health
Standardized death rate
Suicide among Chicanos
Vital Statistic Information System
Vital Statistics
Whiteness
Whites