Objectives: This manuscript aims to understand the association between self-rated health and ethnic-racial characteristics (i.e., skin color, self-ascription, and Indigenous language) in the context of the Mexican population.
Design: Logistic regression analyses, using the 2019 PRODER (N = 7187)-a representative survey at the national level. We centered the analysis on two measures of skin color: the interviewer assessment of color skin (that has been used in previous studies), and the ITA scale, a measure constructed from optical digital colorimeter readings (a novel method in ethnoraciality studies in Mexico, included in the PRODER survey).
Results: In comparison to the interviewer's assessment of skin color, the ITA score shows a significant association with self-rated health, even in the presence of individual conditions, sociodemographic traits, and life-course events. In contrast, ethnic-racial self-ascriptions and speaking of an Indigenous language do not show any statistical associations.
Conclusion: Contrary to previous research, our results suggest a positive association between skin color and self-rated health, when the former is assessed with the colorimeter readings; it means that those with lighter color skin are more prone to report a better health perception. It has methodological implications in the way skin color is observed.
Keywords: Ethnic-racial ascription; Indigenous language; Self-rated health; Skin color; Socioeconomic disparities.
© 2024. W. Montague Cobb-NMA Health Institute.