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Amanda Merck

Merck completed her MPH with a concentration in Physical Activity and Health. She curates content for Salud America! (@SaludAmerica), a Latino childhood obesity prevention project based at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio. She focuses on the latest research, resources, and stories related to policy, systems, and environmental changes to enhance equitable access to safe places for kids and families to walk, bike, and play.

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Articles by Amanda Merck

Zumba for Kids: ‘Ghostbusters’ and Other New Videos Push Fun Physical Activity



Check out these new videos that feature minority youths doing Zumba dance moves to inspire kids to have fun and be physically active, thanks to our friends at the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. Zumba dance blends upbeat world rhythms with easy-to-follow choreography to provide total-body workouts. These new videos can be used to get your students, family, or team, up and moving for a quick and effective physical activity break. Hey Soul Sista Ghostbusters Love is ...

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Latino Brings a Grocery Store to an Area in Need of Healthy Food



Check out a new video that shows how a Latino, Albert Rodriguez, brought healthier food to his community of Highland Falls, New York. The community, which is about 19% Latino, lacks access to healthy food. Rodriguez' MyTown Marketplace grocery store, got a grant for the store, and it offers food, including much fresh produce and a salad bar, to the local residents. "Food is a necessity. It's not a luxury. You know, it's not a want. You need food," Albert Rodriguez, owner of MyTown Marketplace. "Any community, I think, needs a grocery store." The video was produced by the Food ...

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Study: Half of Hispanic Adults Will Develop Diabetes



U.S. Hispanic men and women now have a 50% chance of developing type 2 diabetes in their lifetime, according to a new federal study, Medical News Today reports. The study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, examined years of diabetes incidence and death rates. Overall, researchers found that, for an average 20-year-old American, the lifetime risk of developing type 2 diabetes increased from 20% in 1985-89 to 40% in 2000-11 for men, and from 27% to 39% for women. In addition to Hispanics' higher risk, black women also had a 50% lifetime risk of diabetes. But while risk increased, years of life lost to diabetes decreased. "As the number of diabetes cases continue to increase and patients live longer, there will be a growing demand for health services and ...

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Report: What Are the Biggest Issues Facing Latinos?



What issues affect the nation's 54 million Latinos? Several leading Latino-oriented organizations described the importance of various issues, including education, health care and immigration in a new report, Voxxi News reports. The report, called the American Latino Agenda Report and developed by the New American Alliance Institute (NAA Institute), was released this week. The report introduces several topics and offers recommendations for improvements. For example, in health, the National Hispanic Medical Association suggested focusing on these areas of needs: Educating Hispanics about the need to change lifestyles in order to increase healthy nutrition and physical activity through a variety of programs. Increasing Hispanics representation in the federal ...

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White Students Now a Minority in School; Hispanic Numbers Surge



For the first time ever, U.S. public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than white students enrolled, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children, the Associated Press reports. White students are still most populous, but their numbers dipped just below 50% for the first time. Here is the racial/ethnic breakdown of students, according to National Center for Education Statistics: 49.8% White 25% Hispanic 15% Black 5% Asian 5% Other "The shift creates new academic realities, such as the need for more English language instruction, and cultural ones, meaning changes in school lunch menus in the Southwest and elsewhere to include tortillas and other offerings to reflect students’ tastes," according to the Associated ...

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Video: Working Across Sectors to Solve Obesity



Promoting work across sectors to solve obesity is a key priority for the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Roundtable on Obesity Solutions, a group that engages leadership from multiple sectors (public health, health care, government, the food industry, education, philanthropy, the nonprofit sector, and academia) to address the obesity crisis. The Roundtable's new video addresses the promise of innovative new collaborations to reverse the obesity epidemic in the United States. Roundtable members discuss the importance of cross-sector work that engages sectors traditionally responsible for health promotion—such as health care providers and public health agencies—and nontraditional partners—such as city planners, members of the media, and business leaders—to work together to improve ...

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Study: Immigrant Children Three Times as Likely to Have Low Physical Activity Levels



Immigrant children of any race/ethnicity have less physically active lives compared to U.S.-born white children, according to a new study, Voxxi News reports. The Rice University study noted a similar disparity for U.S. minorities: U.S.-born black children were 1.35 times as likely to have lower levels of physical activity. U.S.-born Hispanic children are 1.23 times as likely. U.S.-born children of unspecified ethnicity are 1.52 times as likely. The study is similar to another study that found that 22.5% of immigrant Hispanic children were physically inactive compared with 9.5 percent of U.S.-born white children. The older study also noted that, compared with native white children, the odds of television watching were 1.5 and 2.3 times higher for native Hispanic and ...

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Is Your Community Creating a ‘Culture of Health’? Enter It for a Prize.



If you live in a community that is transforming health across sectors, bringing stakeholders together to create opportunities for people to make healthy choices, and making real measurable impact, you're invited to apply for the 2015 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Culture of Health Prize. The annual RWJF Culture of Health Prize celebrates communities that have placed a priority on health and are creating powerful partnerships and deep commitments to make change. Winners get a $25,000 cash prize. To be eligible, communities must be designated as a town, city, county, tribe or tribal community or region (such as contiguous towns, cities, or counties) in the United States. Six criteria are central to the judging: Defining health in the broadest possible ...

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Study: Knowing Cultural Food Patterns Can Help Fight Obesity in Latina Immigrants



Latinos are 1.2 times as likely as whites to be obese, federal data shows. One big reason for this obesity disparity is Latino immigrants' cultural food patterns, but NYU College of Nursing researchers reviewed 13 studies on the issue and found they usually consider Latinos as a single ethnic group and don't account for cultural differences based on country of origin. Thus, because food words vary between countries, Latinos may be unable to rely on each other for proper translation when it comes to making informed, healthy decisions. "The immigrant experience pervades every aspect of an immigrant Latina’s life, and ultimately influences the dynamics that become barriers and facilitators to healthy food choices," said study author Lauren Gerchow. "Such barriers include changes ...

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