Background and Purpose Hispanic ethnic density (HED) is associated with salubrious health outcomes for Hispanics, yet recent research suggests it may also be protective for other groups. The purpose of this study was to test whether HED was protective for other racial-ethnic groups. We tested whether social support or neighborhood social integration mediated the association between high HED and depressive symptoms (CES-D) and physical morbidity 5 years later. Lastly, we tested whether race-ethnicity moderated both main and indirect effects. Methods We used Waves 1 (2005–2006), and 2 (2010–2011) from The National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, a national study of older U.S. adults. Our sample was restricted to Wave 1 adults who returned at Wave 2, did not move from their residence between waves, and self-identified as Hispanic, non-Hispanic White (NHW), or non-Hispanic Black (NHB; n = 1,635). We geo-coded respondents’ addresses to a census-tract and overlaid racial–ethnic population data. Moderated-mediation models using multiple imputation (to handle missingness) and bootstrapping were used to estimate indirect effects for all racial–ethnic categories. Results Depressive symptoms were lower amongst racial-ethnic minorities in ethnically (Hispanic) dense neighborhoods; this effect was not stronger in Hispanics. HED was not associated with physical morbidity. Sensitivity analyses revealed that HED was protective for cardiovascular events in all racial–ethnic groups, but not arthritis, or respiratory disease. Social support and neighborhood social integration were not mediators for the association between HED and outcomes, nor were indirect effects moderated by race–ethnicity. Conclusions This study offers some evidence that HED may be protective for some conditions in older adults; however, the phenomena underlying these effects remains a question for future work.

中文翻译：

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西班牙裔人口密度可能对某些健康状况的老年黑人/非洲裔美国人和非西班牙裔白人人群具有保护作用：支持和邻里机制的探索

背景和目的 西班牙裔人口密度 (HED) 与西班牙裔的健康健康结果相关，但最近的研究表明它也可能对其他群体具有保护作用。本研究的目的是测试 HED 是否对其他种族群体具有保护作用。我们测试了社会支持或邻里社会融合是否介导了高 HED 和抑郁症状 (CES-D) 与 5 年后身体发病率之间的关联。最后，我们测试了种族-民族是否会调节主要和间接影响。方法 我们使用了国家社会生活、健康和老龄化项目的第 1 波（2005-2006 年）和第 2 波（2010-2011 年），这是一项针对美国老年人的全国性研究。我们的样本仅限于第 1 波成人，他们在第 2 波返回，在两次波之间没有搬离住所，并且自我认定为西班牙裔，非西班牙裔白人 (NHW) 或非西班牙裔黑人 (NHB; n = 1,635)。我们将受访者的地址地理编码到人口普查区并覆盖种族-民族人口数据。使用多重插补（处理缺失）和自举的调节中介模型用于估计所有种族 - 民族类别的间接影响。结果 在种族（西班牙裔）密集社区中，少数族裔的抑郁症状较低；这种影响在西班牙裔中并不强。HED 与身体发病率无关。敏感性分析显示，HED 对所有种族群体的心血管事件都有保护作用，但对关节炎或呼吸系统疾病没有保护作用。社会支持和邻里社会融合不是 HED 与结果之间关联的中介，种族 - 民族也不会减轻间接影响。结论 本研究提供了一些证据，表明 HED 可能对老年人的某些疾病具有保护作用。然而，这些影响背后的现象仍然是未来工作的一个问题。