Hacker News Reader

Comment by dataker | Hacker News Reader

One of the overlooked factors is religion.

South Americans are predominantly Catholic and less prone to drinking/smoking and end up fostering a community

Growing up in a latin american, predominantly Catholic country, I can assure you that they are not less prone to drinking. Smoking was less common, but because of the culture, not religion.

Drinking can different between different cultures. There are cultures that drink the same amounts (per capita) but have fewer alcoholics, because they see drinking as something social, e.g. related to eating with friends and family etc, not as something you do even alone or to cure your blues.

Although that sounds like a Freakonomics type explanation, it seems pretty unlikely that smoking and drinking rates would not already have been assessed and excluded. These are two pretty big factors at the top of the list when examining life expectancy.

Also, if your hypothesis was true, then it would need to hold for other [Roman] Catholic groups for that to be the key factor. That does not seem to be the case as, according to Wolfram Alpha, the top life expectancy (at 84.4 years) is Macau, followed by Japan (83.6) then Switzerland (82.6) and Australia (82.5) tied with Andorra. Italy is 6th though.

While there are Roman Catholic countries high up, there are also higher ranked, non-Roman Catholic ones.

There are many convincing cases of benefit derived from religious faith but I'm not sure you can make such a case for life expectancy.

My argument is not about Catholicism, but religion and social organization itself. Most of these countries have either a homogeneous population or a common gathering element(Catholicism for Hispanics)

Most non-Hispanic Americans end up not having a common element or belonging to such a community. The effects on health may vary from less binge drinking to a more helpful family.

I am Mexican and live in Mexico. It is true that family ties are quite strong here, but drinking is also very strong. I don't know where you get the idea of less binge drinking.

Less prone to drinking. I see my priest drinking wine every week at mass. But seriously, I don't think Hispanics are less prone to drinking. Is that true?

Antidotial, but my mom's side of the family is hispanic. Her ancestors arrived 1850's. None of the women drank, nor smoked much. The men drank, and smoked like cast members on Mad Men. They were all surprising healthy? Even the one's who did get bypasses and diabetics--all lived into their 80's and 90's; functional--driving, working, and even dating. My grandfater drank 12 beers/day and smoked two packs of cigarettes/day, and ate fast food(loved Taco Bell), and lived to 80 something. Plus, he lived most of his life in the smoggiest parts of LA.

Now, my dad's Irish side of the family, at least the men, died in their 60's. I have a feeling I will take after my Irish ancestors. Maybe, I will get lucky?

I am glad to hear something positive about Hispanics--too often it's negative. I always leave out my Hispanic heritage because it's just not worth the stereotypes.

I don't think it is this. Anecdotal, but I have been raised in a hispanic household and lived in some South American countries.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com