Making a Connection to Improve Latino Health
Posts tagged Latino
Study: Liver Cancer in Latinos Linked to Diabetes, Obesity
04 weeks ago
Liver cancer rates among South Texas Latinos are higher than in other U.S. Latinos, as are their rates of obesity and diabetes—and the relationships between these ailments are being mapped by researchers at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday.
In a study published April 18, 2012, in the journal PLoS ONE, the researchers looked at overall liver cancer rates among U.S. Latinos and compared this to a Texas sample and a South Texas subset from 1995-2006.
Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez
They also compared prevalence among Latinos of lifestyle-associated factors that contribute to liver cancer: heavy alcohol use, smoking, obesity and diabetes.
They found that from 1995 to 2006, annual age-adjusted liver cancer incidence increased among all populations – but was highest in South Texas Latinos over the entire period. The increase among South Texas Latinos was also significantly greater than all Texas Latinos, who in turn had significantly higher levels of liver cancer than the U.S. national sample.
While obesity and diabetes increased among all three groups, obesity rates were higher in Texas Latinos and highest in South Texas Latinos. Neither heavy alcohol consumption nor cigarette smoking increased.
“Regarding risk factors, we found remarkably similar and significantly increasing rates of obesity and diabetes in our study groups, with higher obesity prevalence in Texas and particularly South Texas Latinos,” said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, the study’s lead author and director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the Health Science Center.
The study warrants further exploration if there is a relationship between diabetes, obesity and liver cancer so that researchers can look at the problem from the standpoint of prevention, said Ramirez, who also is a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics in the Health Science Center’s School of Medicine and associate director of health disparities at the Health Science Center’s Cancer Therapy & Research Center.
“Both obesity and diabetes are preventable and/or treatable,” she said, “so reducing obesity and diabetes may be an important for lowering Latinos’ risk for liver cancer, too.”
Highlighting the Need for Diverse Health Care Fields
01 month ago
Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series that will highlight the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s work in Latino communities across the country.
On May 5, 2012, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) will team up to provide Hispanic media with an in-depth look at a health care issue that’s key to the Latino community.
The panel discussion, “Reflection in the Mirror: Latino leaders inspire young Hispanics to see themselves in the health and health care field,” will address the importance of diversifying this country’s health and health care fields.
Prominent Latinos will detail their respective journeys and the importance of having health professionals reflect the communities in which they serve.
Dr. Debra Joy Pérez, assistant vice president for research & evaluation at RWJF, will deliver opening and closing remarks. The discussion will be moderated by Anne Harding, who writes for Reuters Health, The Lancet, The Scientist and the British Medical Journal.
Panelists include Dr. Gabriel Rincón, president of Mixteca Organization, Inc., which provides health and education programs to thousands of Latino New Yorkers. Rincón was honored as a 2011 RWJF Community Health Leader.
Dr. Judith Aponte will also be on the panel. Aponte is the first Hispanic to graduate from the Doctor of Nursing Science program at Columbia University. In addition, she was the first Hispanic to receive tenure from Hunter College’s Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, where she is now an associate professor.
The third panelist will be Wanda Montalvo, clinical director for the New York State Diabetes Campaign. Montalvo chairs the National Diabetes Education Program, an effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and more than 200 partners to develop strategies and interventions to improve the lives of people living with diabetes. She is an alumna of RWJF’s Executive Nurse Fellows program.
NAHJ members, register today to be a part of this event! You’ll get ideas and contacts for stories that can help lead to a more diverse health care workforce.
Join the conversation on Twitter at #NAHJhealth.
Study: Do ‘Tiendas’ Offer Healthier Food Options?
11 month ago
by admin
in Uncategorized
Barriers remain in Latinos’ ability to purchase healthier dairy and meat options in tiendas—Latino-focused grocery stores—according to a new study.
The study, published recently in Public Health Nutrition, compared the availability, quality and cost of healthy and unhealthy foods in 10 tiendas and 15 supermarkets in San Diego County, Calif.
Researchers found that tiendas were smaller, charged more for a gallon of skim milk, and offered less lean ground beef than supermarkets.
However, they also found that tiendas had similar fresh produce offerings at lower prices.
“These results highlight the potential that tiendas have in improving access to quality, fresh produce within lower-income communities,” the researchers concluded. “However, efforts are needed to increase the access and affordability of healthy dairy and meat products.”
VIDEO: How to Bring Cancer Education, Screening to Underserved Latinos
01 month ago
Step 1: Innovative cancer education.
Step 2: Cancer screening.
Step 3: Catching cancer at early, treatable stages.
That’s the life-saving idea behind Salud San Antonio!, a new $2 million research project led by Dr. Cynthia Mojica, assistant professor at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Salud San Antonio! will partner with several community groups and employ community health workers—also known as promotoras—to teach Latinos in low-income, health-problematic areas on the city’s West and South sides about breast, cervical and colorectal cancer and the benefits of cancer screening.
After promotoras teach, they’ll refer Latinos for cancer screening and even help with travel to appointments, interpreting medical forms and more.
“This project can help detect cancer at early, more treatable stages by helping Latinos get screened who otherwise wouldn’t because of lack of money, transportation, health insurance, or knowledge of the health system,” Mojica said.
Read more about this project here.
Watch a video here or below to see Dr. Mojica talk about the pilot study that led up to her newest grant aimed to improve Latino cancer screening rates.
More Than 15% Obese in Nearly All U.S. Metro Areas
02 months ago
by admin
in Latino Obesity
Adult obesity rates were higher than 15% in all but three of 190 metropolitan areas surveyed in 2011, according to a Gallup and Healthways report.
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, residents—who are predominantly Latino—were the most likely to be obese, at 38.8%.
Nationwide, 26.1% of American adults were obese in 2011.
The Gallup report indicates that the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area pays more than $400 million in unnecessary healthcare costs each year because of its high obesity rate.
“If it reduced the obesity rate to 15%,” according to the report, “the area could potentially save more than $250 million annually.”
VIDEO: Reaching Border-Area Latina Moms and Daughters to Prevent Cervical Cancer
03 months ago
Dr. Deborah Parra-Medina, a professor at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, is promoting the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer in South Texas.
Her project, Entre Madre e Hija, trains peer educators to provide outreach and education about HPV—the virus that causes cervical cancer—and navigation support to both mothers and daughters (ages 11-17) who decide to receive the HPV vaccine.
The peer educators have reached more than 1,800 women so far.
“Our outreach efforts have been very successful,” Dr. Parra-Medina said. “We have found many young girls that have initiated the vaccine but have not completed the three-dose series. As a result, our efforts now include a focus on increasing compliance with the 3 dose series as well.”
IHPR researchers Drs. Daisy Morales Campos and Cynthia Mojica are co-investigators on Entre Madres. The project is funded by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.
Find out more in this video.
VIDEO: Immigrants Pushing Apples in the Big Apple
03 months ago
by admin
in Uncategorized
In The Apple Pushers, a critically-acclaimed documentary that follows a group of New York immigrants who are eliminating food deserts in their urban communities, filmmakers follow five street vendors who are part of a unique program called the NYC Green Cart Initiative, which deploys pushcart vendors to bring produce to underserved New York neighborhoods, PreventObesity.net reports.
It’s a somewhat typical story for the obesity field, a tale about a public-private partnership working to tackle a local problem through creative means.
The documentary, narrated by actor Edward Norton, also helps viewers get to know the vendors pushing those carts around, telling the touching stories of five immigrants striving to achieve the American dream.
Watch the trailer here or below.
New Project to Offer Cancer Screening to Underserved Latinos in San Antonio
03 months ago
Two University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio researchers today were awarded a total of $4.7 million by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).
These awards for cancer prevention, along with $2.9 million to University Health System, make San Antonio the largest recipient of funds in this CPRIT funding cycle—28% the $26.3 million awarded.
Dr. Cynthia Mojica of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio
Dr. Cynthia Mojica, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics in the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center, will use a $2 million award to partner with federally qualified health center CentroMed and community organizations to offer breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening to San Antonio residents otherwise unable to afford them.
“This grant allows us to greatly expand what we’ve been doing in terms of giving people in underserved populations the opportunity to be screened,” Dr. Mojica said.
A $2.7 million grant to Dr. Gail Tomlinson, interim director of the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute (GCCRI), allows her team to help health-care providers map out their patients’ cancer risks and to share information with the community about the importance of understanding family history. They will work with CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health System and other groups. The grant will also support screening services for people at high risk who might not otherwise have access.
“A family history can yield strong clues to understanding a person’s risk for cancer,” Dr. Tomlinson said.
The awards reflect the kind of work that goes on at the Health Science Center, said Dr. William L. Henrich, president of the Health Science Center.
“Extending better cancer screening opportunities and the latest expertise in genetic counseling to the people at greatest risk here in South Texas is the perfect expression of our mission at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio,” Dr. Henrich said.
CTRC director Dr. Ian M. Thompson Jr. noted that this is not the first time CPRIT has supported both researchers.
“Prevention is one of the most important ways to fight cancer,” said Dr. Thompson, professor of urology in the School of Medicine at the Health Science Center. “Dr. Tomlinson’s genetic research will give us the capability to bring a person’s potential cancer risk into sharper focus, helping them make decisions in advance to prevent the disease. Dr. Mojica’s community outreach will give our friends and neighbors the opportunity to be screened for cancers for which early diagnosis can mean a cancer cure. I am delighted that CPRIT continues to help them both help San Antonio and Texas.”
Mental Health Workforce Shortage More Critical in Minority Communities
04 months ago
Texas’ severe shortage of mental health professionals is compounded by a disparity in diagnosing and treating the state’s rapidly growing Latino and other minority communities, the Texas Tribune reports.
The report indicates that 64% of all psychiatrists were white, 3.5% were black, and 12.4% were Hispanic in 2009.
Watch this captivating video to see more about this issue.
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