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Amelie Ramirez

I am director of Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio. I have spent 30 years directing research on human and organizational communication to reduce chronic disease, cancer, and obesity health disparities affecting Latinos.

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Articles by Amelie Ramirez

Tasas de Casos y Mortalidad por el Coronavirus entre los Latinos en los Estados Unidos


Latina woman essential worker clerk store face mask for covid-19 coronavirus

El coronavirus COVID-19 puede afectar a cualquier persona. Pero los repores muestran que los latinos y otras personas de color se ven afectadas de manera desproporcionada, debido al deterioro de las desigualdades históricas. ¿Qué muestran los datos realmente? Tasas de casos de COVID-19 en los latinos Recientemente la población latina de los EE. UU. aumentó a 18,5%. Pero el coronavirus está enfermando de manera desproporcionada a los latinos. Los latinos representan actualmente el 28,8% de los casos de COVID-19 en los Estados Unidos, superados solo por los blancos (50,1%), según los datos de los CDC reportados el 16 de junio de 2021. Los datos por raza/etnicidad están disponibles para el 62% de los casos del país. Las hospitalizaciones asociadas con el COVID-19 ...

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Help Your City Adopt Smoke-Free Multifamily Housing!


smokefree multifamily housing child with no smoking sign for smoke-free multifamily housing

People who live in multifamily housing share air with their neighbors ─ including secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke contains over 70 cancer-causing chemicals, and has killed over 2.5 million people. The dangers are especially serious in multifamily housing, where secondhand smoke can travel through doorways, halls, windows, ventilation systems, electrical outlets, and gaps around fixtures. Download the Salud America! Action Pack “Help Your City Adopt Smoke-Free Multifamily Housing!” The action pack will help you engage local leaders in exploring a smoke-free multifamily housing policy for common areas and individual units. "Experts say a smoke-free multifamily housing policy can protect the health of tenants and staff of apartments from secondhand smoke, as well as ...

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New $9.8 Million Study is 1st to Seek Full Understanding of the Latino Cancer Survivorship Journey


New $9.8 Million Study is 1st to Seek Full Understanding of the Latino Cancer Survivorship Journey

Latinos with cancer face a tough survivorship journey. Many suffer advanced disease, poor quality of life, and stressful social and economic inequities. This is why a new, first-of-its-kind national cohort study will unpack the social, cultural, behavioral, psychosocial, biological, and medical influences on post-cancer life in Latino cancer survivors to fill a crucial gap in knowledge about their survivorship experience. The study, “Avanzando Caminos (Leading Pathways): The Hispanic/Latino Cancer Survivorship Study,” is funded by a 6-year, $9.8-million grant from the National Cancer Institute that will team up two of its Cancer Centers, the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson and the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of ...

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Find Out If You Have Implicit Bias and What to Do Next!


implicit bias test with diverse faces in head and brain

Many people think they harbor no bias toward other people. Or they believe they know their biases and don’t act on them. But everyone has implicit bias. Implicit biases are stereotypes that affect our actions and decisions about others, beyond our conscious control. Fortunately, these biases also can be “rewired” toward more compassion for others. Download the free Salud America! Action Pack “Find Out If You Have Implicit Bias and What to Do Next.” This Action Pack will help you see if you have implicit bias, learn from others who have overcome their own implicit bias, and also encourage others to learn about implicit bias, too. GET THE ACTION PACK! Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio, created this Action Pack. With the ...

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Mil Gracias for Not Smoking Indoors!


mil gracias for not smoking indoors logo

By choosing to not smoke indoors, a smoker deserves a thank-you for protecting their family, friends, and neighbors from secondhand smoke. That’s why the new “Mil Gracias (A Thousands Thanks) for Not Smoking Indoors!” campaign from UT Health San Antonio is inviting people share gratitude for smokers who respect others’ air during the COVID-19 respiratory pandemic: Email a “thank you” to smokers who protect others by not smoking indoors. Sign a letter acknowledging secondhand smoke's danger to health. Download an Action Pack to promote smoke-free multifamily housing in your city. The Mil Gracias campaign features English and Spanish flyers with key messages to help people reduce their risk for smoking-related diseases and COVID-19. “Smokers have the power ...

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Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review


Cohesive Culture for Health Equity Research Review Collage 2

Do you notice how much some of your neighbors are suffering? A widening socioeconomic gap, racism, and discrimination contribute to inequitable distribution of healthcare and mental and physical health disparities among Latinos and other people of color and those in poverty, especially amid COVID-19. But it doesn’t have to be this way. A cohesive culture for health equity is one where everyone works individually and as a group to ensure that each person has a fair, just opportunity for health and wealth, as well as equitable access to basic resources required for these goals. To achieve a more cohesive culture, we must help people understand and overcome the mechanisms─implicit bias, system justification, moral disengagement─they use to discriminate against people of ...

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Introduction & Methods: A Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities


diverse people together cohesive culture research review introduction

This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review» Abstract Health inequities are persistent in the United States. A widening socioeconomic gap, extensive poverty, and multi-level racism, discrimination, and segregation contribute to inequitable distribution of healthcare, resources, and a significant disparity in mental and physical health outcomes among Latino and other population groups. In a society characterized by income segregation and information “bubbles,” it is easy for those who are more fortunate and/or whose hard work has been amply rewarded to fail to perceive the degree of suffering that is experienced by those who do not share their affluence. There is growing evidence that the ...

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Strategy for Equitable Change: Implicit Bias Training


equal justice trauma implicit bias training

This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review» Implicit Bias Training Programs Mitigating implicit bias and promoting inclusivity “is a long-term goal requiring constant attention and repetition and a combination of general strategies that can have a positive influence across all groups of people affected by bias,” and can overlap between domains, according to Marcelin et al. and other researchers (see figure).43,74 Implicit bias training programs, such as those designed by the Kirwan Institute of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, also aim to improve intergroup attitudes and relations, by “rewiring” subconscious associations. The Kirwan Institute has made the first set of ...

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Strategy for Equitable Change: Building Social Cohesion


Diverse neighbors social cohesion intergroup contact cohesive culture research review

This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review» Why Social Cohesion is Important The far-reaching effects of poverty have been well documented; the material hardships associated with poverty, including food insecurity and difficulty meeting basic medical and housing needs, lead to worse health outcomes.86 An inability to provide for family members leads to parental stress, which compromises marital and parent-child relationships due to a reduced capacity for warm and responsive interactions. The chaotic home lives and the community conditions characteristic of low SES areas — such as community violence and substandard housing — are linked to worse socioemotional outcomes for children. Poorer ...

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