New findings from 20 years of research on Latino Health

Latinos are the second largest racial/ethnic group in the US, comprising about one-fifth of the population in 2024. Their widely recognized survival advantage over most other racial/ethnic groups; however, often obscures the many health-related challenges they have experienced historically and continue to confront today. Founded on two decades of research on Latino health, newly published research by CCPR Faculty Fellow Professor Anne Pebley and her longtime collaborator, Professor Noreen Goldman of Princeton University, explores health outcomes and patterns that juxtapose Latinos’ higher than average life expectancy with enduring health-related disadvantages, including numerous chronic diseases and health conditions, disability and functional limitations, and survival during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their findings reveal a relatively weak social gradient across several health outcomes, indicating that being of higher socioeconomic status confers a smaller health benefit compared to being of lower status relative to the White population. Pebley and Goldman highlight the importance of occupational stratification and the continued social and economic inequalities that underpin it as likely causes of poor Latino health. They further caution that these disparities are likely to worsen in the coming years, driven by continued inequalities as well as increasing stress and reduced access to healthcare from current anti-immigrant policies and the likely occurrence of future epidemics.

Read the full article: The Latino Health Experience: Past and Future