title: Ethnicity, nativity, and the health of American Blacks.
abstract: There have been few empirical studies of ethnic differences in health within the American Black population. Logistic regressions were used to examine the relationships among ethnicity, nativity, depressive symptoms, and physical health in the two largest ethnic groups of American Blacks, African Americans and Caribbean Blacks. The data were from the National Survey of American Life, a national household survey representative of the non-institutionalized U.S. Black population. We found that African Americans, U.S.-born Caribbean Blacks, and Caribbean-born Blacks had significantly different self-ratings of their health and self-reports of being diagnosed with a chronic physical health condition: Caribbean-born Blacks had the best health outcomes and U.S.-born Caribbean Blacks had the worst. This finding remained significant even after considering self-reported depressive symptoms. This study highlights the importance of considering ethnic diversity, nativity and immigration as independent sources of variation in health status within the American Black population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, Center on Men's Health Disparities, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA. derekmg@umich.edu
authors.forename: Derek M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Griffith
authors.forename: Jonetta L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Harold W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Neighbors
authors.forename: James S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Jackson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017691:Caribbean Region / Q000208:ethnology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003863:Depression / Q000208:ethnology*; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D036262:Empirical Research; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology