Resilience of Older Latinos and Mexicans Before and During the Pandemic.

This article introduces the special issue on Aging and Resilience in the Americas: Mexico and the United States. The article overviews the role that the annual International Conference on Aging in the Americas (ICAA) has played in the development of scholarship on aging of Latinos in the United States and older persons in Latin America and the Caribbean. A brief overview of the aging literature reveals a growing interest on the resiliency of older Latino and Latin American populations in the United States and more broadly the Americas. The article provides a short description of each of the five articles included in this special issue.

Latino Mortality Paradox Found (Again): COVID-19 Mortality a Tale of Two Years.

Objectives: This study examines the resiliency of the Latino Mortality paradox during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are used to compute the ratio of Latino-to-white all-causes death rates for adults aged 45 and older, nationally and among 13 U.S. states with Latino populations greater than one million. Results: Nationally, the Latino mortality paradox persisted in 2020 and 2021. However, there was significant variation across states. We document three distinct patterns of COVID-19 mortality across 13 U.S. states: 1) the disappearance of the Latino mortality paradox, 2) the persistence of the Latino mortality paradox, and 3) the disappearance in 2020 and reemergence in 2021 of the Latino mortality paradox. Discussion: COVID-19 Mortality has disproportionately affected mid- and late-life Latinos, although the disparities relative to whites have narrowed. We discuss the dynamics influencing the waning and waxing of the Latino mortality paradox.

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

OBJECTIVES: This brief report aims to highlight stark mortality disparities among older Latinos that result from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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. DISCUSSION: 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.

The linkage of life course, migration, health, and aging: health in adults and elderly Mexican migrants.

UNLABELLED: Migration is a phenomenon that impacts individuals throughout the life course. Particularly, Mexican elderly migrants show evidence of lifetime accumulations of the effects of migration on health conditions. OBJECTIVES: Examine how the relationship between historical time and individual time explains different factors impacting the health of Mexican adult and elderly migrants in Mexico and the United States. METHOD: Data from in-depth interviews with Mexican migrants living in selected locations in Mexico and the United States were used to illustrate the links between life course conditions, aging, migration, and health outcomes. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: According to this theoretical perspective and the data, historical time, age at migration, and the conditions under which the migration trajectory developed, show different impacts on the health and quality of life of the elderly, as revealed through analysis of labor experience, disease and accidents, medical service, health treatment, transnational networks, and family formation.

The human ecology of tornadoes

This paper offers an empirical test of the impact of human ecological patterns and other known correlates on tornado occurrence. It uses the National Severe Storms Forecast Center's information on tornadoes from 1950 through 1990 and employs ecological data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the Environmental Protection Agency. The results show that metropolitan and other urban counties have higher odds of tornado occurrence than rural counties, and that the probability of occurrence of tornadoes increases with increases in the number of previous tornadoes. The paper assesses the meaning of this finding for demographers, atmospheric scientists, engineers, and disaster managers.(AU)