The overall proportion of Americans age 65 and older who have ever been vaccinated against pneumonia, a leading killer of seniors, increased from 53% to 60% between 2000 and 2008, according to new figures from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). However, Hispanic, lower-income, and inner-city seniors were less likely to be vaccinated: Just 37% of Hispanic seniors reported ever being vaccinated against pneumonia, vs. 65% of white seniors and 45-46% of Asian and blacks seniors.
Almost two thirds (65%) of high-income seniors reported ever being vaccinated against pneumonia compared with less than half (46%) of poor seniors.
Only 52% of seniors who live in a large inner-city area, where residents tend to be low-income and minority, reported ever being vaccinated, ...
If you have been diagnosed with high cholesterol, for example, you probably know that keeping cholesterol at a healthy level can help you lower your chances of a heart attack or stroke. But how much do you know about your treatment options, including what side effects medications may cause and how to determine the best option for you? If you don’t get the best possible information about all your treatment choices, you might not make an informed decision on which treatment is most appropriate for you. All of this couldn’t be truer for Hispanics who have to navigate a complex healthcare system in another language. This is where a new campaign, “Toma las riendas” (“Take the reins”), comes in. The Toma las riendas campaign, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare ...
Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series that will highlight the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s work in Latino communities across the country. By SaludToday Guest Blogger: Sallie George Do you know someone doing exceptional work to improve health or access to health care in his or her community? Or someone who has solved or who has made good progress toward solving a daunting community health problem? If so, nominate your local health hero for a 2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leaders award. As the nation’s largest health philanthropy, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) selects 10 of these individuals each year to receive the Community Health Leaders award, which includes national recognition, opportunities to network and ...
In the late 1980s, Dora Alicia Gonzalez helped do one of the first assessments of socioeconomics and health care locations in her native Brownsville, Texas. She even helped write a 300-page report—page by page—on a typewriter. Gonzalez said the experience, even despite its arduous typing task, sparked her interest in public health and improving the lives of the underserved. Over the last 20 years she has helped meet the needs of uninsured residents as part of a primary health care agency, and also fostered community-based partnerships and developed and implemented cancer education training sessions along the Texas-Mexico border for the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Today, Gonzalez builds community health as a program coordinator at the Institute for Health Promotion Research ...
To help address health among Spanish-speaking Americans, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) has launched an easy-to-read Spanish-language website with vital health info and disease prevention tools based on scientific and medical research. The website, healthfinder.gov en espanol, is an online health information resource designed for Spanish-speaking communities. Offering 46 different health topics from acupuncture to vaccinations, the site provides tools and information for people to be healthy and stay healthy. Hispanics are the largest U.S. minority. Hispanics also lead the nation in childhood poverty—painting a grim picture when it comes to Hispanics and health. Tools on the new site ...
Latinas and older, poorer women all are more likely to have lymph nodes under the armpit removed unnecessarily during breast cancer surgery, according to a new study, Reuters reports. That's despite 2005 guidelines recommending a gentler surgery that spares most of the lymph nodes, avoiding side effects like pain, swelling and numbness down the line. Based on a California cancer registry, researchers found that more than a third of about 18,000 women who had undergone mastectomy for early-stage breast cancer had had their lymph nodes removed as well. Yet all of these women had node-negative tumors, meaning the cancer had not spread beyond the ...
Diabetes affects nearly 26 million people in the U.S. Another 79 million people are estimated to have pre-diabetes. Diabetics are at risk for diabetic eye disease, a leading cause of vision loss. While all people with diabetes can develop diabetic eye disease, Latinos, African Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and older adults are at higher risk of losing vision or going blind from it. “The longer a person has diabetes the greater is his or her risk of developing diabetic eye disease,” said Dr. Suber Huang, chair of the Diabetic Eye Disease Subcommittee for the National Eye Institute’s (NEI) National Eye Health Education Program. “If you have diabetes, be sure to have a comprehensive dilated eye exam at least once a year. Diabetic eye disease often has no ...
To address the needs of Latino cancer survivors, the LIVESTRONG organization created a cancer survivorship training curriculum to increase the number of Latino community health workers, otherwise known as promotores, and their skills, knowledge and confidence on the physical, emotional and day-to-day concerns of cancer survivors. To date, LIVESTRONG has trained more than 500 promotores across the country. What exactly is a promotora? Watch this video of Guadalupe Cornejo, a promotora at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, who explains what she does and who she helps. To see more of what a promotora does, watch a video, "A Day in the Life of a Promotora," in English subtitles or ...
Be sure to check out a new event, Nursewise: Tobacco Cessation, Nutrition and Physical Activity, at 8 a.m. Nov. 12, 2011, at Courtyard by Marriott in San Antonio, Texas. The event will initiate discussion on current recommendations and evidence-based techniques for every nurse. Register here. The registration fee is $50 for nurses and $25 for promotores, community health workers and students. The program is presented by the Nurse Oncology Education Program (find out more here) and made possible by a grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of ...
