Black Caribbeans do better in America than ...( ANN ARBOR Mich.---Black Caribbeans l...),Health

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Black Caribbeans living in America enjoy better health, higher incomes and less discrimination at work than both their English counterparts and black Americans, according to the first international comparative study of these populations.

The study, published this month online in the journal Sociology of Health and Illness, was led by sociologist James Nazroo of the University of Manchester, U.K., and social psychologist James Jackson, director of the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR).

For the study, Nazroo, Jackson and colleagues compared survey data from national probability samples of five groups: Black, Caribbean and white Americans, and white and Caribbean English. In all, they analyzed data on approximately 20,000 individuals.

The surveys were independent, but similarly designed, allowing researchers to sort out how differences in health were affected by economic and cultural factors, and by migration experiences. The U.S. survey data are part of the National Survey of American Life, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

They found that Caribbeans in the United States were more than twice as likely as Caribbeans in England to say their health was good.

They also found that whites and Caribbeans in the United States had similar levels of good health whereas Caribbeans in England had much worse health than their white counterparts.

The team also found that Caribbean Americans are wealthier than their English counterparts---with an income profile close to that of white Americans. In addition, Caribbean Americans reported less discrimination at work than their English counterparts, although levels of experienced racial abuse were similar in the two countries.

In contrast to the findings for Caribbean Americans, other black Americans fare just as badly as English Caribbeans in terms of health, wealth and racism.

Other findings: