Older Hispanic adults buffered against social isolation despite higher rates of sensory disabilities, study finds

Social isolation is a growing public health concern linked to higher rates of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, infectious disease, depression, anxiety and even premature death. Older adults report the highest rates of social isolation.

A recent BYU study, led by nursing professor Corinna Trujillo Tanner, examined social isolation in an especially vulnerable group—older adults with vision and hearing impairments. She collaborated with family life professor Jeremy B. Yorganson, three BYU students and three researchers from other universities to compare older adult populations in Mexico and the United States. They hypothesized that a family-centered cultural norm may buffer the typical health risks associated with aging, social isolation and sensory impairments. The findings are published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences.

“Our past research involved the creation of a new measure of social isolation to be used with large population-based data sets,” Tanner said. “In the current study, when we included measures of family support, we found that Mexican and U.S. Hispanic older adults were less socially isolated than non-Hispanic White older adults, even though Hispanic and Mexican populations had much higher rates of vision and hearing loss.”

The researchers analyzed 30,559 records from two nationally representative studies: the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (2009–11, ages 51+) and the Mexican Health and Aging Study (2017, ages 50+). They used harmonized data to make cross-national comparisons.

Social isolation was scored using the following measures:

• Weekly contact with friends and relatives by phone, mail or email
• Whether participants lived alone
• Weekly engagement in community social activities

Participants self-rated their vision and hearing difficulties. The study controlled for age, marital status, intergenerational living arrangements, level of education, functional limitations and household income.

Tanner interprets the findings through the lens of the “Hispanic Paradox,” a term coined in a seminal 1984 paper by study co-author Kyriakos Markides. Although Hispanics are a heterogeneous group, they tend to experience higher rates of poverty, lower levels of education and less access to health insurance, yet have longer life expectancy than non-Hispanic Whites.

This interpretation aligns with Tanner’s lived experience. She has more than 500 years of Hispanic family heritage from the New Mexico area and sees robust patterns of bidirectional migration between Mexico and the U.S. that reinforce shared cultural values, including strong family ties.

“We think the results showing higher social connection in U.S. Hispanic and Mexican older adults can be explained by the shared ethnic cultural value of familismo that prioritizes family, respect for the elders, and reliance on one another for essential support,” Tanner said.

Familismo values every family member as an important contributor. Tanner captures this idea in the nursing concept of “care partnering.”

“In nursing, we say ‘care partnering’ instead of ‘caregiving’ because even when you are providing care for someone, they are providing something for you, too,” Tanner said. “Whether it’s company, counsel, help with tasks, caring for younger children, preparing meals, preparing for holidays, there’s the shared sense of being needed.”

Tanner acknowledges that family relationships are not always simple.

“Relationships can be complicated and sometimes painful, but I see that even complex family relationships can reduce individual challenges associated with aging and sensory impairments.”

As a clinician at a multi-clinic eye hospital, Tanner sees the benefits of family-centered support. Hispanic patients frequently arrive at appointments with several family members, demonstrating a shared commitment to caring for loved ones. These strong family ties promise better health outcomes.

“When we are caring for patients, we want to care for them in the context that they’re living in,” Tanner said. “As nurses, we see the family as the unit of care, not the patient in isolation.”

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