The Validity of Self-Rated Health among Latino(a)s: Cultural Artifact or Hidden Risk?

Brian K. Finch, University of California at Berkeley
Maureen Reindl, University of Texas at Austin
William A. Vega, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

We investigated whether self-rated health had differential mortality risks for Latino(a) adults living in the United States of various acculturation statuses. We employed cumulative National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data from 1989-1994 (n=37,713) linked with the NHIS Multiple Cause of Death data files (deaths=1,342). We specified survival models to estimate the effect of self-rated health (SRH) on mortality and further stratified our model by nativity and duration in the U.S. Poor SRH was found to be a weaker predictor of subsequent mortality risk among the less acculturated, although the overall risk among the aggregated sample is similar to the risk reported in previous studies. The relationship between poor self-rated health and mortality risk increases with U.S. acculturation among Latinos. While poor self-rated health was significantly associated with short-term mortality among the least acculturated-this association did not persist beyond two-year mortality risk.