Smoking Remains a Serious Problem in Latino Community
Aug 31st
Latinos generally have lower rates of smoking than other racial/ethnic groups with the exception of Asian Americans. However, smoking remains a continuing and serious problem in the Latino community.
Get all the key facts on Latino smoking from the American Lung Association.
And if you’re a Latino who is thinking about quitting smoking, be sure to check out the Buena Vida health magazine in English or Spanish that tells the stories of five Latinos and how they kicked the habit and what it meant for their lives. The Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind Salud Today, produced the magazine and other tobacco prevention materials.
Leading the Fight Against Latino Cancer
Mar 31st
Redes En Acción: The National Latino Cancer Research Network, which is funded by the National Cancer Institute and directed by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez of SaludToday and the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, is celebrating 10 years of work to reduce Latino cancer.
Redes has generated more than $200 million in funding for cancer research, trained more than 200 students and health professionals and conducted more than 2,000 community education events, bilingual materials and more.
Watch a stirring video here or below about the program’s achievements among Latinos. Then join us!
Also, watch the program’s six new PSAs touting Latino cancer prevention in English or Spanish here. To request broadcast-quality formats of the PSAs, email us at saludtoday@uthscsa.edu.
S.A. Teens Photograph Their Neighborhoods to Illustrate Tobacco Problems
Mar 26th
SAN ANTONIO—Memorial High School student Victor Hernandez (at right) points to his photograph of a smoked cigarette butt lodged in the crack of a sidewalk.
The photo caption starts: “Cigarettes get between everything.”
“People might dream to be a doctor, lawyer – then cigarettes get introduced,” Victor said of the photo’s meaning. “With every cigarette it gets harder and harder to quit, you get closer to death. Your original dream goes away.”
Victor is one of eight students from Edgewood Independent School District’s Kennedy and Memorial high schools who recently partook in a “Photovoice Smoke-Free” project, where students took photos and wrote captions to visually describe the problem of tobacco to policy- and decision-makers.
Read more about the students and their photos here or in the latest E-newsletter from the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind Salud Today.
Study: BOUNCE Helps Latino Moms, Daughters Get Fit
Mar 2nd
Dr. Norma Olvera, a pilot researcher of the Salud America! Latino childhood obesity prevention network, which is led by the team behind Salud Today, had her research on an after-school program for Latinas selected for publication in a special supplement of the journal Obesity.
Dr. Norma Olvera
Dr. Olvera, from the University of Houston, assessed the efficacy of a family-based exploratory community study, BOUNCE (Behavior Opportunities Uniting Nutrition, Counseling, and Exercise), to increase physical fitness and activity in low-income Latino mothers and daughters. Mother-daughter pairs went through a 12-week exercise, nutrition education, and counseling intervention.
The BOUNCE intervention had a significant effect on Latina daughters’ aerobic capacity.
Both mothers and daughters reported a higher reduction of high fat food and sugary beverages and an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption, compared to control-group daughters.