#SaludTues Tweetchat 10/20/15: Quitting Smoking with the Help of Technology


fda cigarette graphic warning labels smoking

Technology is a promising way to help Latino smokers quit, given the dire health and cancer consequences of smoking and Latinos' adoption of new technologies and media. What technologies are working? Let’s use #SaludTues on Oct. 20, 2015, to tweet information, resources, and tips that can uncover the ways technology can help Latinos kick the habit now (and for good!): WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Quitting Smoking with the Help of Technology” TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015 WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues HOST: @SaludToday CO-HOST: The CDC (@CDCTobaccoFree) SPECIAL GUEST: The American Lung Association (@LungAssociation) We’ll open the floor to your stories and experiences as we explore: How much do Latinos ...

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Turn Your Phone into a Personal Coach to Help You Quit Smoking!


female not smoking

Smoking is a tough opponent to beat. Quitxt is a new free service that turns your mobile phone into a personal coach to help you quit smoking, using interactive and entertaining text messages, online support, hip-hop music, and videos designed for South Texas young adults by researchers at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. The service’s text messages help with motivation to quit, setting a quit date, finding things to do instead of smoking, handling stress, using nicotine replacement if needed, and more. To join, text “iquit” to 57682. “Text-message applications have scientifically proven to roughly double one’s odds of quitting smoking, so we developed Quitxt specifically for young adult Latinos to capitalize on their heavy usage of texting to help them ...

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Fact Sheet: What Works For Latino Children & Adolescents



Children and adolescents of Latino/Hispanic background often face challenges that differ from other subpopulations in the United States. Language barriers, issues related to parental citizenship status, and the economic disadvantages often faced by these children and adolescents can result in various negative outcomes, such as depression, substance abuse, gang-related violence, and suicide. While several programs and interventions targeting Latino children have been implemented over the last decade, data on what out-of-school time programs and approaches work among this population are scarce. This literature review synthesizes findings from 33 random assignment experimental intent-to-treat evaluations of social interventions that specifically targeted Latino children and adolescents, ...

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The 6 Top Preventable Causes of Cancer Death



More than half of the estimated U.S. cancer deaths projected to occur this year are related to preventable causes, according to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) reports. The top preventable cancer causes are: Tobacco use (33%) Obesity or overweight (20%) Cancer-causing pathogens (16%) Insufficient physical activity (5%) Poor dietary habits (5%) Exposure to ultraviolet light from the sun or tanning devices (2%) The report indicates that more than 50% "of the 585,720 cancer deaths expected to occur in the United States in 2014 will be related to preventable causes." But changes with changes to diet, activity habits and weight, approximately 1 in 3 cancer cases are preventable, according to the AICR. "More ...

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New Insight on How to Reduce Tobacco’s Impact Among Latinos, Others



The Tobacco Research Network on Disparities (TReND) has announced the release of the special journal issue, Cigarette Smoking Interventions Among Diverse Populations. This issue, published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, includes 15 papers that provide insight into how to effectively reduce tobacco's impact on populations who are disproportionately affected by tobacco use, including African Americans and Latinos. In the issue, researchers examine the use and efficacy of evidence-based interventions among diverse ...

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Smoking Remains a Serious Problem in Latino Community



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 ...

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Cigarette Smoke Jolts Hundreds of Genes (from San Antonio Study of Mainly Mexican-American Population)



A new study shows lighting up a cigarette changes a person's gene activity across the body, a possible clue as to why smoking affects overall health—from heart disease to combating infections, LiveScience reports. A research team from Australia and San Antonio, Texas, analyzed white blood cell samples of 1,240 mainly Mexican-American people, ages 16-94, who were participating in the San Antonio Family Heart Study. They found that the 297 self-identified smokers in the group were more likely to have unusual patterns of "gene expression" related to tumor development, inflammation, virus elimination, cell death and more. A gene is expressed when it codes for a protein that then instructs, or kick-starts, a process in the body. The study found cigarette smoke could alter the level ...

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San Antonio Smoking Ordinance Wouldn’t Snuff Out Restaurant/Bar Industry



If San Antonio ends up prohibiting smoking in indoor workplaces, its restaurants and bars are not likely to lose patrons to the few and geographically separated establishments outside the city limits that do allow smoking, according to a new analysis by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. The analysis identified and mapped the 165 licensed-to-serve alcohol establishments in 30 incorporated towns outside San Antonio, but within Bexar County. The vast majority (117) of those establishments already are smoke-free. The remaining 48 that do allow smoking are fairly geographically separated from each other and, even if weighed as a whole, don’t have the capacity to sustain an influx of smoking customers if ...

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For World No Tobacco Day, Stop Exposing Others to Dangerous Smoke



For World No Tobacco Day, Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez reflected on the effects of smoking and the opportunities to quit smoking, especially among Latinos. Dr. Ramirez, director of SaludToday and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. noted that for every one person that dies from a tobacco-related cause, there are 20 more people who are suffering with at least one serious illness from smoking, such as certain cancers, heart attacks, strokes, cataracts and skin wrinkling. Smoking is the No. 1 cancer killer of Hispanics nationally. Here is a little bit from Dr. Ramirez' op-ed article in LatinaLista: If you smoke, just imagine some of the benefits you'd immediately achieve by quitting. You'd have more money to spend. You'd have whiter ...

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