August 06, 2009
Can Moving to the United States Make You Sick?
The term "Hispanic" covers many regions, dialects, and cultures of Spanish-speaking people. Now there is evidence that each subgroup also has different cancer risks. Paulo S. Pinheiro, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., researcher in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has completed a study and found that,
The results indicated that these population groups showed different patterns of cancer once they moved to the United States; Mexicans had the lowest rates of cancer overall and Puerto Ricans had the highest rates of cancer. Cubans' risk of cancer most closely resembles that of non-Hispanic whites. Similar to the U.S. non-Hispanic white population, Cubans and Puerto Ricans seemed to acquire higher risk for diet-related cancers relatively quickly.
For all cancers combined, risk for most cancers was higher (at least 40 percent) among Hispanics living in the United States compared with those who live in their countries of origin.
Lifestyle changes that occur when immigrating to the United States are attributed to the increased cancer risks. The increased incidence of chronic illnesses in general has been documented in other information sources, including the Becoming American episode of Unnatural Causes series that has been shown on PBS, and will be re-run in October in some regions.
To read Dr. Pinheiro's article, check Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.