Summary, Conclusions, and Implications

Abstract

Historically, African-Americans in the general population have been disadvantaged when it comes to mortality compared to non-Hispanic whites. While mortality disparities between races have diminished over time, their persistence serves as a reminder of inequalities in American life. In special populations of professional athletes, between-race mortality discordance, favoring non-Hispanic whites, is similarly observed. In addition, while not always statistically significant, the findings in this study demonstrate elevated mortality risk among African-American relative to Hispanic players. There is little or no difference in mortality risk between Hispanic and non-Hispanic white players when educational attainment is controlled in the analysis, although this may be due to a statistical anomaly. Alternatively, the empirical study findings point to the existence of a Hispanic Paradox. Because of the way mortality data were collected in the current study, this paradox cannot be explained by the “salmon bias.”