In spite of the mortality rate of 301.9 per 100,000 population, Latinos still have longer life expectancy rate than non-latinos. What is the secret behind the longer life span of Latinos then?
Mark Hayward, author of "Is There A Hispanic Epidemiological Paradox in Later Life? A Closer Look at Chronic Morbidity", said that older U.S. Hispanics tend to be healthier than non-Hispanics. The top three leading causes of death for Hispanics are Cancer, Heart Disease, and Accidents.
Life expectancy for Hispanics seem to have been maintained since 2006 at an average of 80.3 years, according to a CDC report. The secrets are said to be that they do not smoke as much as others do, they are more physically "robust", and they have more physically demanding jobs which give them more opportunity for unintentional excercise and workouts.
Bioinformatician Steve Horvath Horvath from University of California, Los Angeles, emphasized that Latinos' slower aging rate is unexplainable especially with their lifestyle factors like diet, education or obesity, and socioeconomic status. Their study says that education is linked to aging. Wherein, more education is linked to longer life span. They also analyzed the women age more slowly than men. On the other hand, a research in 2013 suggests that Hispanics have longer life expectancy but have more disabilities.
In some perspectives, the secret for longer life is being single. Some women who look younger will say that their secret is that they never marry and never have kids at all. Some who have been living for more than a hundred years say that their secret is that they never married at all as well. Being single is also a way to live longer but for some, it is detrimental as benefits of marital relationships will not be experienced. Some just have the contentment to live that way, others cannot live without a spouse and at least having a child as their purpose of existence.
