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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

New Guide Can Help Open School Property to the Public for Physical Activity



Nearly a third of U.S. kids and adolescents are overweight or obese, especially minority groups, including Latinos. Many are urged to get more exercise but can’t follow this advice very easily where they live. Schools, for instance, have many recreational facilities—gyms, soccer fields, tracks, basketball courts, playgrounds, even swimming pools—but they keep them closed after hours due to security, liability and maintenance concerns. But communities around the country are resolving these issues through what’s known as a joint use agreement: a written contract between a school district and, usually, a city agency, spelling out a formal arrangement that lets the two share the costs and maintenance and liability responsibilities. Playing Smart is a new nuts-and-bolts ...

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Exposure to Recreation Center Increases Use by Latino Families with Children



Community recreation centers that develop culturally tailored programs that invite Latino families inside can increase sustained use of the center for physical activity in this population at heightened risk for childhood obesity, according to a new study in Childhood Obesity. Living near community recreation centers (CRC) is associated with increases in adolescent and adult physical activity. However, the efficacy of efforts to increase use among Latino parents and children is unknown. So researchers, led by Dr. Shari Barkin, a Vanderbilt University researcher and grantee of Salud America!, compared 66 Latino parent–child pairs who had participated in a culturally tailored healthy lifestyle program at a community recreation center and completed a 12-month follow-up ...

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The Latest Advances in Fighting Latino Childhood Obesity



How do: Researchers contribute to policy changes for healthier cities? (Pg 1) Hunger and obesity become the focus of a TV series? (Pg 3) Latino tiendas differ in healthy food options? (Pg 4) Find the answers and more in the new Salud America! E-Newsletter. Also check out much more news, research and funding inside the E-newsletter, and discover the preliminary research results of a quartet of Salud America! grantees working in Latino after-school programs, community recreational centers and more. Salud America!, which is dedicated to preventing Latino childhood obesity, is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and is headquartered at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind ...

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Trends in Nutrition, Chronic Health Conditions Among Mexican-American Adults



The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released the report on selected nutrient intake and chronic health conditions among Mexican-American adults. The report, Trends in Nutrient Intakes and Chronic Health Conditions Among Mexican-American Adults, a 25-year Profile: United States, 1982–2006, in this time span, the percent kilocalories from total fat, saturated fat, and protein intake among Mexican-American adults decreased, while carbohydrate and mean total energy intake increased. During this same time period, the prevalence of obesity and diabetes among Mexican-American adults increased and the prevalence of high blood pressure remained stable. The overall prevalence of high total serum cholesterol among this group did not differ significantly from ...

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VIDEOS: Health Efforts Helping Transform San Bernardino, Calif., and Hernando, Miss.



Throughout the country, people are coming together with a shared vision, strong leadership, and commitment to making needed and lasting changes that broadly improve community vitality. This is happening in large urban settings and small rural ones; it's happening in places with tremendous resources and in places with few resources to draw from; it's happening in places with relatively few health challenges and in places where the challenges are many and daunting. One place is San Bernardino, Calif. In 2006, officials launched the San Bernardino Healthy Community Initiative. Since then, 17 of the county's 24 cities have launched their own healthy city initiatives, including features such as Safe Routes to School, community gardens, shared resources and more. Watch more about ...

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VIDEO: ‘I Choose Life’ Is Story of Latina’s Diabetes Experience



Check out this very inspirational video about one Latina's experience with diabetes. Her name is Joanna Puello. The video was written, edited, and produced by Puello for her class at Full Sail ...

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Obesity Rate Surges Among Mexican-American Adults



The percentage of obese Mexican-American adults has risen from 21% in 1984 to 35% in 2006 to 40% in 2010, according to new government data, USA Today reports. Mexican-American adults' obesity rates also were higher than the national average of 36%. According to the USA Today report: The percentage of Mexican-American adults with diabetes was 14% in 2006, higher than the most recent national average of about 11%. About 22% of Mexican-American adults had high blood pressure and 20% had high cholesterol in 2006. These rates have remained stable over the last few decades. The prevalence increases with age. The average intake of calories for Mexican-American men was 2,521 in 2006; women, 1,827 calories. Those numbers have increased by several hundred calories each since 1984. The ...

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How an ‘Exercise Avoider’ Becomes an ‘Exercise Promoter’



Laura Esparza used to be an “exercise avoider.” She steered clear of physical activities that resembled the P.E. classes of her youth, and had little confidence to work out or try playing any sports. That changed when Esparza, a parent of three children and community volunteer in San Antonio, Texas, grew increasingly concerned with rising local obesity levels and learned that daily physical activity is an essential element of everyone’s physical and mental health. Now she exercises regularly and is an avid “exercise promoter” at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, where she researches ways to increase Latino families’ physical activity. “Spurred by my own experience, I became interested in ...

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Innovation in Preventing Latino Cervical Cancer, Obesity & More



Find the latest in Latino health—from fighting Latina cervical cancer to innovative ways to tackle Latino childhood obesity—in the new E-newsletter from the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. The IHPR E-newsletter has these stories: Story and Video: Preventing Cervical Cancer in South Texas (Pg 1) Story: How an “Exercise Avoider” Became an “Exercise Promoter” (Pg 2) Story: The Importance of Latino Biospecimens (Pg 2) Story: 20 Studies Tackle Latino Childhood Obesity (Pg 3) Story: Who is Promotora of the Year? (Pg 4) Videos: “Feeding Minds” Series Addresses Hunger, Obesity in Texas (Pg 6) The E-newsletter is jam-packed with even more info on the latest local and national health ...

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