The Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 on Older Latino Mortality: The Rapidly Diminishing Latino Paradox

• Published in: The Journals of Gerontology: Series B Vol. 76; no. 3; p. e81
• Main Authors: Sáenz, Rogelio, Garcia, Marc A
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: United States Oxford University Press 17.02.2021
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging - ethnology; Cause of Death; COVID-19 - ethnology; COVID-19 - mortality; European Continental Ancestry Group - ethnology; Female; Hispanic Americans - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; United States - ethnology; United States; COVID-19; Mortality
• DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbaa158

This brief report aims to highlight stark mortality disparities among older Latinos that result from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We use recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to compute age-specific death rates (ASDRs) for 3 causes of death: deaths from COVID-19, residual deaths, and total deaths for 4 age groups (55-64, 65-74, 75-84, and 85 and older) to assess the impact of COVID-19 on older Latino mortality relative to non-Latino Whites and non-Latino Blacks and also in comparison to residual deaths. Additionally, we obtain ASDRs for all causes of deaths from 1999 to 2018 to provide a pre-pandemic context and assess the extent to which the consistently observed mortality advantage among Latinos persists during the pandemic. Consistent with previous research, our findings show that Latinos have lower ASDRs for non-COVID-19 causes of death across all age groups compared to non-Latino Whites. However, our findings indicate that Latinos have significantly higher ASDRs for COVID-19 deaths than non-Latino Whites. Furthermore, although the Latino advantage for total deaths persists during the pandemic, it has diminished significantly compared to the 1999-2018 period. Our findings indicate that as a result of the pandemic, the time-tested Latino paradox has rapidly diminished due to higher COVID-19 mortality among older Latino adults compared to non-Latino Whites. Future research should continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 to assess the disparate impact of the pandemic on older non-Latino Black, Latino, and non-Latino White adults as additional data become available.