CPRC

Past Research: Professor Abraído-Lanza has made important contributions to understanding the Latino ‘mortality paradox’. (The paradox, which has implications both for theories of population health and for social policy, refers to Latinos’ lower all-cause mortality rate, relative to non-Latino Whites, despite the greater proportion of Latinos in disadvantaged social classes and the robust relationship between lower socioeconomic status and poorer health.) The innovative work of Abraído-Lanza and colleagues has demonstrated that Latinos’ lower mortality is neither an artifact of migrant selectivity nor a result of undercounting of migrant deaths due to aging migrants returning to their countries of origin. In addition to demonstrating the non-artifactuality of lower Latino mortality rates, Abraído-Lanza and colleagues have explored the behavioral origins of these differentials, using a nationally-representative data set to examine ethnic, gender, and acculturation-related patterns in crucial health behaviors, publishing in major journals such as Social Science and Medicine and the American Journal of Public Health. Their findings provided partial support for both the health behaviors hypothesis and the acculturation hypothesis, but with notable differences in the gendered patterns—and in particular with effects of acculturation on health behaviors that were greater among women than men on every measure. The impact of Abraído-Lanza’s work is reflected by the invitation she received in 2006 to join the Center for Disease Control’s Task Force on Community-Preventive Services. In addition to her scientific contributions, Abraído-Lanza has played a major role in creating public health and health sciences training opportunities for minority students, directing an NIH-supported minority training program and contributing to the development of a Center for training in minority health and health disparities.

Present Research: Building on the mixed evidence for the health behaviors and acculturation hypotheses, and the varying impact of gender on these relationships, Abraído-Lanza’s current work, supported by NIH and by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, focuses on the mechanisms through which acculturation shapes health behaviors and health outcomes among Latinos. Her research has continued to use nationally-representative household-based data sets, such as the National Health Interview Survey, both to analyze ethnic mortality differentials and to explore the relevance of concepts such as acculturation and ‘fatalismo’ to understanding immigrant health. One particular focus of her program of research is acculturation, and breast and cervical cancer—an area of central public health importance as evidenced by the nation’s Initiative to Eliminate Health Disparities, in which cancer screening and management is listed as one of the six priority disparity categories. Abraído-Lanza’s work has shown that although Latinas have lower rates of mammography screening than do non-Latina Whites, this difference is not significant when accounting for socio-demographic confounders. Her program of research on breast and cervical cancer screening demonstrates that the association between ethnicity, cultural factors and screening requires models that detail the mechanisms and processes by which ethnicity and acculturation are associated with screening. This quantitative work is complemented by her current work on fatalism, which employs a mixed-methods approach and analyzes qualitative data on Latina women’s beliefs to better understand these processes, exemplifying Abraído-Lanza’s systematic efforts to develop culturally-based theoretical models. Importantly, this work also helps to shed light on myths and stereotypes concerning Latinas’ worldviews and the extent to which these beliefs influence women’s screening behaviors.

Future Research: In future work, Abraído-Lanza plans to expand her interests in acculturation and health to explore whether acculturation processes differ across Latino groups, and if so, whether these processes differentially impact health, incorporating attention to the different sociopolitical histories and reasons for migrating to the U.S. of Mexicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans.

Professor Abraído-Lanza's Departmental Biography Page