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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 2/16/16, 1pmET: “WHY Women’s Heart Health Matters!”



Heart disease is the #1 cause of death for Latina women in the U.S. with nearly 21,000 deaths occurring annually among Latino women In fact, studies show Latina women are prone to developing heart disease 10 years earlier than non-Hispanic white women! What can be done to prevent this? Join our “WHY Women’s Heart Health Matters” #SaludTues Tweetchat on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 12pm CST (1 p.m. eastern) to learn more important facts about heart health. Share your resources, stories, and tips for preventing heart disease in the Latino community. The chat is co-hosted by Salud Today, The Heart Truth, and The Women’s Heart Alliance (a partnership of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at ...

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CONTEST: Salud Heroes vs. Sugar



Latino kids get too much sugar, but not enough fruits and vegetables. WATCH and VOTE for new Salud America! Salud Heroes who help fight sugar and push fruits/veggies by Feb. 29, 2016, and be entered in a random drawing to win a FREE T-shirt and jump rope! Sugar Bites. County leaders built a toothy bilingual campaign to urge parents to choose water over sugary drinks for kids in Contra Costa, Calif. Is Your Drink Sugar-Packed? Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and health advocates want folks to reevaluate their sugar intake in the San Antonio area. Poets Fight the Fizz. Gabriel Cortez and other young minority poets joined with a health coalition to voice a counter-advertising campaign against sugary drinks in California. Rx for Produce. A clinic teamed up with a farmers market ...

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Study: Children with Step-Siblings Are More Likely to Be Aggressive



Children with step or half siblings are more likely to behave aggressively towards other children (over 30% of Latino children are in complex family situations), Latinos Health reports. Researchers at the University of Michigan studied over 6,000 young children (under 5) and asked the biological mother of each child “about frequency of things such as temper tantrums, physical aggression, shows of anger, and destruction of personal property.” The study concluded that when children live in complex family situations they tend to be 10% more aggressive towards other children than their peers who don’t’ live with half or step siblings. “While this link does not establish causation, the findings add nuance to the prior scientific conversation on family and development, which ...

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Eva Rodriguez: An Èxito! Grad With a Passion for Latino Health



Editor’s Note: This is the story of a graduate of the 2015 Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. Apply now for 2016. Eva Rodriguez New York City, New York Like her lovely Mexican guanengo blouse, Eva isn’t afraid to “display” her cultural ties and her desire to help people wherever she goes. That already includes a school health program and family planning program in New York, which built up her a desire to study reproductive health, reduce stigma, and start an open dialog in the Latino community. We believe Eva has the capability of tackling Latino cancer health disparities and helping them with social services, youth development, and more. "[Éxito!] made the idea of a DrPH more plausible," said ...

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#SaludTues Tweetchat 2/16/16: “Why Women’s Heart Health Matters!”



Studies show Latinas are prone to developing heart disease 10 years earlier than non-Latina whites. What can be done to prevent this? Join our “Why Women’s Heart Health Matters” #SaludTues Tweetchat on at 12pm CST (1 p.m. EST) Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016, to learn more important facts about heart health and share tips and stories for preventing heart disease in the Latino community. The chat is hosted by Salud Today and co-hosted by The Heart Truth and The Women’s Heart Alliance (a partnership of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital /Weill Cornell Medical Center). WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “WHY Women’s Heart Health Matters” TIME/DATE: Noon CST ...

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Collaborative is Helping Hospitals Support Breastfeeding in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley Area



The Texas Ten Step Star Achiever Breastfeeding Learning Collaborative:  An Initiative to Improve Infant Nutrition and Care is an initiative to help Texas hospitals implement the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding to support women's choices concerning breastfeeding and to increase exclusive breastfeeding rates. According to the Texas Ten Step Star Achiever Regional Summary Report, in 2009, only 15 percent of infants born in South Texas were exclusively breastfed on their second day of life compared to 42 percent of infants in Texas overall. Moreover, risk for type 2 diabetes is reduced by 39% among children who were breastfed. In order to reduce health disparities, it is important to look at social and environmental factors related to disparities in breastfeeding rates. The Ten ...

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Toolkit: Texas Ten Step Star Achiever



The Texas Ten Step Star Achiever Training Toolkit is a step-by-step training kit to help Texas birthing facilities and staff implement each of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding to support in a facility-wide paradigm shift toward increased breastfeeding support and exclusivity. "This toolkit includes detailed definitions of each step, rationales and strategies for implementation, and resources for further reading and review. It is recommended that you approach the steps and the goals in the manner best suited to your facility. For instance, it is not necessary to work through the steps sequentially. Instead, create a plan for implementation that is most appropriate and effective in the context of your facility, staff, patients and community." Access the toolkit ...

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Study Finds Latinos Have Lower Risk of Coronary Heart Disease



Latinos, Asians and African Americans have a lower risk of coronary heart disease than whites, according to a 10-year study of more than 1.3 million Kaiser Permanente members in Northern California. "Racial and ethnic differences in diabetes, cardiovascular-disease risk factors and their outcomes, especially in blacks, are well-documented, but population health estimates are often confounded by differences in access to high-quality health care," said Jamal S. Rana, lead author of the study. Rana adds “we were able to evaluate ethnic differences in risk of future coronary heart disease within a diverse population, which included not only black, but also large Asian and Latino populations, with uniform access to care in an integrated health care delivery system.” The study ...

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Neighborhood Association Pushes City for More Walkable Streetscape



Nicolas Rivard and Allison Hu, urban designers in San Antonio and members of Dignowity Hill Neighborhood Association, learned about an upcoming street construction project that lacks walkable streetscape elements in their largely Latino neighborhood, and decided to act. The urban designers mobilized and empowered community members to get involved and request walkable streetscape elements, and the city responded by adding street trees, separated sidewalks, and landscaping. Today, through their recent project, Place Changing, the designers use “design activism” or “participatory design” processes to build urban literacy and equip residents with strategies to continue to get involved in city planning and development projects. Walkability Low in East San Antonio Neighborhood Nicolas ...

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