Mortality Among Hispanics-Reply

In Reply. —We would like to clarify and emphasize several aspects of our article on mortality among Hispanics. Analysis was performed using only the white population in this study, ie, the Hispanic, non-Hispanic, foreign-born, and native-born groups were included as white. Data were inadequate to analyze for other racial groups. Missed deaths because of relocation back to the country of birth is not likely to be an explanation for the results for several reasons. Deaths in Puerto Rico are part of the National Death Index. Mortality among US-born Hispanics was lower than US-born non-Hispanics. Lower mortality was observed in Hispanics for both short-term and long-term follow-up. We did not attribute the lower mortality in Hispanics to a healthy migrant effect, but clearly stated that research needs to be done to determine the reasons for the lower mortality. Both behavioral and biological factors should be considered. The proportion in our sample