Making a Connection to Improve Latino Health
Posts tagged AHRQ
New Spanish-Language Podcasts on Quitting Smoking, Autism, Healthcare and Asthma
03 months ago
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Healthcare 411 audio news source provides practical health care information, research findings, and data in English and Spanish to help consumers, health providers, health insurers, researchers, and policymakers make informed decisions about health care issues.
The site offers some brand-new Spanish-language podcasts on these topics:
Consejos para dejar de fumar: Provides suggestions to help individuals break their smoking habit.
Terapias para niños con trastornos del espectro autista: Discusses treatment options for children with autism
Toma las riendas: Discusses how patients can increase their awareness about common healthcare issues
Disparidades en el uso de medicamentos para el asma: Discusses the disparities of asthma medication usage among the Latino community
To view more Spanish-language programs, go here.
Chat Live on Facebook with Hispanic Health Expert on 12/7/11
05 months ago
by admin
in Healthy Lifestyles
Dr. Ileana Ponce-Gonzalez
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Effective Health Care Program will host a live chat on its Spanish-language Facebook page with Scientific Review Officer Dr. Ileana Ponce-Gonzalez at 2 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011.
This Facebook live chat is part of AHRQ’s recently launched Toma las riendas campaign, a nationwide effort to encourage Hispanics to take control of their health and explore treatment options. The campaign promotes a wide variety of resources produced by the Effective Health Care Program, such as consumer-friendly publications that summarize treatment options for common health conditions and help Hispanics work with their health care teams to select the best possible treatment option.
Access to reliable information is essential when making a decision about one’s health.
“If you don’t get the best possible information about all your treatment options, you might not make an informed decision on which treatment is most appropriate for you,” said Dr. Ponce-González, who serves as the spokesperson for Toma las riendas. See her bio here.
You can send in live chat questions for Dr. Ponce-González now to EHC_Outreach@ahrq.hhs.gov, and questions will be taken during the chat, too.
A chat transcript will be available on the Facebook page after the event.
More Seniors Getting Pneumonia Shots, But Hispanics Lag Behind
06 months ago
The overall proportion of Americans age 65 and older who have ever been vaccinated against pneumonia, a leading killer of seniors, increased from 53% to 60% between 2000 and 2008, according to new figures from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
However, Hispanic, lower-income, and inner-city seniors were less likely to be vaccinated:
- Just 37% of Hispanic seniors reported ever being vaccinated against pneumonia, vs. 65% of white seniors and 45-46% of Asian and blacks seniors.
- Almost two thirds (65%) of high-income seniors reported ever being vaccinated against pneumonia compared with less than half (46%) of poor seniors.
- Only 52% of seniors who live in a large inner-city area, where residents tend to be low-income and minority, reported ever being vaccinated, compared with 64% of seniors who live in medium-size cities.
This AHRQ News and Numbers summary is based on data from 2010 National Healthcare Quality Report, which examines Americans’ access to, and quality of, health care.
Latinos, ‘Take the Reins’ of Your Health With New Spanish-Language Guides
06 months ago
If you have been diagnosed with high cholesterol, for example, you probably know that keeping cholesterol at a healthy level can help you lower your chances of a heart attack or stroke.
But how much do you know about your treatment options, including what side effects medications may cause and how to determine the best option for you?
If you don’t get the best possible information about all your treatment choices, you might not make an informed decision on which treatment is most appropriate for you. All of this couldn’t be truer for Hispanics who have to navigate a complex healthcare system in another language.
This is where a new campaign, “Toma las riendas” (“Take the reins”), comes in.
The Toma las riendas campaign, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), promotes factual, unbiased treatment information to help Spanish-speaking Hispanic patients and doctors work together to make informed healthcare decisions.
This information, from AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, is based on scientific research regarding treatment options, simplified into easy-to-understand guides. Someone with high blood pressure, for example, might have more than a dozen medicines from which to choose. Someone with heart disease might need to choose between having heart surgery or taking medicine to open a clogged artery. Patients face complicated choices: Which test will help most? Is surgery the best option? Which medical treatments work best for me? What are the risks and benefits? Toma las riendas information puts more control in the hands of patients when making these kinds of health care decisions.
Toma las riendas also gives doctors and health care team members information to help them stay up to date on the best available scientific evidence related to specific health topics such as treatments for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, mental health and other conditions. This info helps health care providers compare the effectiveness of medications.
To get regularly updated information and engage in ongoing discussions about taking control of your health, visit the Facebook page. Spanish-language patient guides on heart and vascular system conditions, diabetes, cancer, bone and joint-related conditions, pregnancy, mental health, and digestive system ailments are available, for free, at http://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/index.cfm/informacion-en-espanol/.
To order free printed copies, call 800-358-9295.
For other free Spanish-language tools, visit http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/espanoix.htm.
Hispanics Patients Pay More to Treat High Blood Pressure
07 months ago
One in four American adults (55.1 million) was treated in 2008 for hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Fewer Hispanics were treated for hypertension (15%) than blacks (29%) or whites (25%).
However, Hispanic patients’ treatments costs were higher ($1,272) than for black patients ($1,037), patients of other races ($1,211), and white patients ($748).
Total expenses were $47.3 billion, with $21.3 billion spent on prescription medicines; $13 billion spent on doctors’ office and outpatient visits; and another $13 billion spent for hospitalizations, emergency department visits and home health care.
The data in this AHRQ News and Numbers summary are taken from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a detailed source of information on the health services used by Americans, the frequency with which they are used, the cost of those services, and how they are paid.
For more info, go here.
Spanish-language Medication Safety Booklet
08 months ago
by admin
in Research/News
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released a revised Spanish-language medication safety booklet, “Su medicamento: Infórmese. Evite riesgos (Your Medicine: Be Smart. Be Safe.)” to help Spanish-speaking patients learn more about how to take medicines safely.
The booklet includes a detachable, wallet-size card that can help patients keep track of medicines they are taking, including vitamins and herbal and other dietary supplements.
The booklet lists four ways to be smart and safe with medicines:
1. Give Your Health Care Team Important Information
2. Get the Facts About Your Medicine
3. Stay With Your Treatment Plan
4. Keep a Record of Your Medicines
The booklet is in Spanish or English. E-mail AHRQPubs@ahrq.hhs.gov to request print copies.
New Spanish-Language Guides Inform Decisions about Heart Disease, Other Illnesses
09 months ago
A free, easy-to-read pamphlet that compares drugs for preventing heart attacks or strokes in people with stable coronary heart disease is one of six new Spanish-language publications from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) that help patients compare treatments for common illnesses.
The publication, Guía para pacientes que están en tratamiento de una cardiopatía coronaria estable (“ACE Inhibitors” and “ARBs” to Protect Your Heart?—A Guide for Patients Being Treated for Stable Coronary Heart Disease), summarizes the benefits and risks of medications called ACE Inhibitors (angiotensin-converting enzyme) and ARBs (angiotensin II receptor blockers). These medications help reduce blood pressure in patients who often take other heart-related medications such as aspirin, blood thinners, or cholesterol-lowering drugs.
“This new Spanish-language guide on heart medications is part of AHRQ’s ongoing effort to give Hispanics the knowledge they need to take a greater role in their health care,” said AHRQ Director Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy.
The other new Spanish-language guides that compare treatment options for common illnesses are:
- Controle el dolor por una fractura de cadera (Managing Pain from a Broken Hip)
- Opciones para tratar el desgarro de los músculos y tendones del hombro (Treatment Options for Rotator Cuff Tears)
- La depresión después de una lesión cerebral (Depression after Brain Injury)
- Conozca sobre la radioterapia en el cáncer de cabeza y cuello (Understanding Radiotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer)
- Hormona del crecimiento humano para los niños con fibrosis quística (Human Growth Hormone for Children with Cystic Fibrosis)
Find these and AHRQ’s other Spanish publications here. To order printed copies, e-mail the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse or call (800) 358-9295. For other AHRQ Spanish-language consumer tools, go here.
Black, Hispanic Kids More Likely to be Hospitalized for Severe Asthma Attacks
010 months ago
by admin
in Research/News
Black children were four times more likely and Hispanic children slightly more likely than white children to be hospitalized for a severe asthma attack in 2007, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
For every 100,000 children ages 2-17 hospitalized for asthma attacks, the federal agency’s data show that: 384 were black, 94 were white, and 135 were Hispanic.
Asian and Pacific Islander children were the least likely to need inpatient hospital care for asthma (78).
Also, children from poor families were more than twice as likely as those from high-income families to be admitted, (231 versus 102).
Healthcare Gaps Persist in Every State; Texas Among Least Improved
011 months ago
by admin
in Research/News
States are seeing improvements in health care quality, but disparities for their minority and low- income residents persist, according to new State Snapshots released today by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
New Hampshire, Minnesota, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island showed the greatest overall performance improvement on a variety of healthcare quality measures in 2010. The five states with the smallest overall performance improvement were Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Among minority and low-income Americans, the level of health care quality and access to services remained unfavorable. The size of disparities related to race and income varied widely across the states.
“Every American should have access to high-quality, appropriate and safe health care, and we need to increase our efforts to achieve that goal because our slow progress is not acceptable,” said AHRQ Director Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy. “These AHRQ 2010 State Snapshots not only provide states with a benchmark on how they are doing in these areas, but they also provide resources that states can use to make improvements.”
To see the 2010 State Snapshots, go here.
Tiendas Olot
Wowww!! nice Blog!! 
2 weeks ago
Gloria Huerta
Where is the Spanish language version of this blog or is there one? I work with Spanish-only speaking communities. Thank you! Maybe that […]
1 month ago
LIVESTRONG
Way to go! Congrats to Marynieves and all of the amazing LIVESTRONG Promotoras!
2 months ago