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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

#SaludTues Tweetchat 03/29/16: Addressing the Latino Senior Health Gap



Latino senior citizens continue to be one of the largest groups “left behind” in terms of achieving and maintaining quality health care. Latino senior citizens also represent the largest population of still uninsured Americans despite concerted efforts to increase their enrollment. Let’s use #SaludTues on March 29, 2016, to tweet information and resources on Addressing the Senior Latino Health Gap: WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Addressing the Latino Senior Health Gap” DATE: Tuesday, March 29, 2016 TIME: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT) WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues HOST: @SaludToday CO-HOSTS: National Council on Aging (@NCOAging) & AARP (@AARP). Questions we got via Social Media: Why do Latino senior citizens lag behind on health ...

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Avoid Sugar on Easter Sunday



Easter Sunday is just a few days away! If you’re like many Latino families then you will most likely have a barbacoa in the park and spend quality time with los abuelos, tios y primos. Unfortunately, vegetables and carnitas are not the only foods we eat on Easter Sunday—especially our children. A regular chocolate bunny packs a whopping 20g of sugar! Over 30% of Latino children in the U.S. are obese/overweight (which contributes to cancer) and binging on candy on Easter Sunday will not make them any healthier. Here are 3 ideas on how your children can have a blast on Easter Sunday and stay healthy: Toys instead of candy: Do something different this year and instead of giving your children and sobrinos candy in their Easter baskets give them small toys! Tasty ...

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The Rivard Report and Salud America! Team Up to Keep San Antonio Fit and Healthy



We’re excited to announce that two San Antonio-based organizations, Salud America! and The Rivard Report, are partnering to highlight challenges and solutions to Latino health and obesity. The Rivard Report is a non-profit, non-partisan online news source in San Antonio that tackles city issues and spotlights innovative solutions. Salud America! is a national Latino childhood obesity prevention network based at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind the SaludToday social media campaign. For the partnership, Salud America! will make monthly article contributions to The Rivard Report on new ways to address the rising epidemic of obesity plaguing San Antonio. San Antonio is a historic, culturally rich, and diverse (63.2% Latino) city, but it also is ...

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The Wrestler’s Pedestrian Revolution



Peatónito is an urban planner by day-who has served as Coordinator of Communication for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy in Mexico and is currently working on the “Shared City” strategy for Vision Zero at the Laboratorio para la Ciudad-and a masked defender of pedestrians by night. His story is featured as one of nine innovative solutions to traffic safety across the world, published in the first-ever issue of Vision Zero Cities: International Journal of Traffic Safety Innovation, by Transportation Alternatives in March 2016. The "luchador" guides the elderly across the street, pushes vehicles backwards out of crosswalks, paints crosswalks and road markings, and stomps across the tops of cars parked on the sidewalk to demonstrate to residents that they ...

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Less Than 3% of Americans Live a Healthy Lifestyle, Study Finds



Less than 3% of Americans live a healthy lifestyle, New York Magazine reports. the study surveyed 4,700 people and found that only 2.7% had four key qualifications for a healthy lifestyle: Moderate or vigorous exercise for at least 150 minutes a week A diet score in the top 40% on the Healthy Eating Index A body fat percentage under 20% (for men) or 30 percent (for women) Not smoking Overall, 16% of participants had three out of the four, 37% had two, 34% had one, and 11% had none. “The behavior standards we were measuring for were pretty reasonable, not super high," said study senior author Ellen Smit, an associate professor at the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences, in Corvallis. "We weren't looking for marathon ...

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Chicago Petition Asks Mall to Turn Parking Lot into a Park



Evelyn and Bart Wisniewski are the husband-and-wife team behind "Give The Park a Name" that started a petition in 2015 to transform the Wicker Park Commons mall parking lot, in Chicago, Ill. (28.95 Latino), to include more green space. The petition is addressed to Ward 1 Alderman Proco Joe Moreno, Ward 2 Alderman Brian Hopkins, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the mall owners-Centrum Partners, Centrum Partners LLC, Lowes, and Jewel-Osco. The petition describes the parking lot as "a no man's land in the midst of an eclectic and unique neighborhood with world class architects and urban planners just steps away." Wisniewski recently put a large banner up on the shopping mall's fence to advertise the initiative and they are preparing to bring the proposal to the Wicker Park ...

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Southern U.S. Is a ‘Hotbed’ for Heart Disease


Heartache

Although fewer Americans overall are dying from heart disease than 40 years ago, researchers have found that the top “hotbeds” for heart disease have migrated to the Southern U.S. In the 1970s, the counties with the highest heart disease rates were clustered in the northeast, according to a new study, HealthDay reports. Now, they are concentrated in what is considered the “deep” South, a region where the Latino population is large. The U.S. southwest, for example, is by far the most Latino region of the country, but the entire Latino population is booming in the South, according to a report. The study has not determined the causes for the shift, only the trend. “[From] other studies we know the socioeconomic conditions of a county can affect rates of smoking and ...

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Disparities in Active Living Zoning Nationwide



Bridging the Gap: Research Informing Policies and Practices for Healthy Youth released their February 2016, Disparities in Active Living Zoning Nationwide research brief. This brief examines how likely children and teenagers younger than age 18 live in communities with codified policies (zoning ordinances and subdivision regulations) that require infrastructure-related features or improvements to facilitate physical activity. It also examines whether such provisions vary based on locale and community income. Findings by community income: Children living in low-income communities were less likely to live in areas with requirements that promote active living than children living in middle-/high-income communities (see Figure 3). Children living in low-income communities ...

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Study: Bacon May Boost Cancer Risk in Latinos



The University of Southern California (USC) published some big results in 2016. They found that Latinas who eat processed meats, like lunch meat, bacon, and sausage, may have an increased risk for breast cancer; however, this association was not found among white women. According to Mariana Stern, senior author, director of graduate programs in molecular epidemiology, and an associate professor in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC: "Few studies look at breast cancer risk factors specific to Latinas. Our focus was to understand if meat consumption is associated with breast cancer and whether there are differences between Latinas and white women. To our knowledge, this is the first study that has looked at meat intake among ...

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