Latinos express widespread optimism and satisfaction with life in the United States, but are not confident in the nation's current direction, according to a new survey, the Denver Post reports. The State of the Latino Family survey, conducted by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, interviewed 1,000 Latinos to explore the attitudes and quality of life of Latinos, who are expected to rise from 17% of the current U.S. population to about 30% by 2060. The good news? Latinos have "upbeat attitudes" on several fronts, such as economic opportunities, personal health and the education of their children. For example, more than 60% of Latino parents with young children are attending parent-teacher conferences, volunteering at the schools and working with administrators and teachers. The bad ...
Added sugar isn't just for sweets anymore. Read the ingredients inside things like pasta sauce and sandwich bread, and you might be surprised how much extra sugar you'll find. Public health experts are pointing to excess sugar as a main contributor to diet-related illnesses like diabetes and heart disease, especially in vulnerable populations like Latinos. A team of scientists from the University of California, San Francisco have developed a new website, SugarScience.org, to take sugar-related scientific information out of medical journals and make it available to the public, to help individuals and communities make healthy choices. SugarScience.org is designed as an authoritative source for the scientific evidence about sugar and its impact on health. The site reflects an ...
Latina breast cancer patients given information about clinical trials in multiple ways, including a culturally sensitive video on breast cancer clinical trials, had much greater awareness of trials than patients who got usual-care information, according to new data. After receiving the extra information—an interactive video about clinical trials, a bilingual booklet, and access to a patient navigator who can help answer their questions—the proportion of Latina breast cancer patients taking steps toward participating in a clinical trial increased from 38% to 75%, according to the study. The study was led by researchers from the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (the team behind SaludToday) and presented at an ...
Complete streets are on their way to becoming a reality for Knoxville, TN. On October 28, 2014, after nearly a year of planning and working to enact a citywide ordinance, champions for safer streets succeeded in getting the city council to approve the new policy! According to a WBIR.com news report, the new policy requires the city to "consider" alternative modes of transportation on the streets, such as walking, biking, and public transportation, when completing a project. Rather than mandate a "complete street," the ordinance requires that the city at least consider it. "The big benefit is that as we change as a city, as millennials move in and as older people may prefer not to drive, we see different types of users using roads," said Erin Gill, the director of the Office of ...
The city of Brownsville, Texas which sits on the Texas-Mexico border was desperately in need of some changes for better health. Fortunately, a diverse group of leaders banded together to implement a variety of initiatives to reach locals with improved access to healthy foods, culturally relevant opportunities for physical activity and programs to aid those with limited access to health care. In an article from Health Affairs blog, Salud Hero and associate professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health, Belinda Reininger recounts how some of Brownville's leaders got started with bringing about a culture of health to its residents. According to the article, in Brownsville, 48% of children live in poverty, 80% are obese or overweight, 30% of the population has ...
Hispanic immigrant are succeeding in Houston the longer they spend in the United States, according to a new study. The study, by Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research, showed that, over time, "Hispanics are assimilating by nearly all measures, from increasing their salaries to graduating more frequently from high school and purchasing more of their own homes," the Houston Chronicle reports. Education has been a key, according to the study. Most Hispanic immigrants in Houston, which has and under-age-20 population that is 50% Hispanics, came to the city without a high-school diploma. But their rates of education, homeownership, and income all improved. These gains extended to the immigrants' second and third generations, although the gains were more slight by ...
Families in the state of Texas that struggle with diet-related illness, many of which are Latino, are about to get some help from their local grocery store. The Texas grocery store chain H-E-B is partnering with the American Diabetes Association to empower families in Texas to shop, cook, and eat healthier. Launched in November 2014, the H-E-B Nutrition Services program will include registered dietitians and nutritionists in-store who will provide affordable nutrition education and care, private one-on-one consultations, grocery shopping tours, cooking demonstrations, group health classes, kids’ cooking classes, “lunch and learn” sessions, disease management classes and more. Not every H-E-B will have a nutrition services program and registered dietitians are based at ...
Georgia Shape, a statewide initiative which seeks to bring an additional 30 minutes of physical activity to every elementary school in Georgia has partnered with the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation and Playworks, an organization that works to improve the quality of recess by creating a bully-free zone. Through the partnership, Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, commissioner Georgia Department of Public Health, said in a Crossroads news article, that the aim would be to make recess safer by providing support and training to staff for delivering the Playworks curriculum to at least 35,000 students at elementary schools across the state. To support this effort and to make recess more inclusive, the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation provided an additional $750,000 in grant funds towards the ...
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has partnered with the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to create multipurpose green spaces throughout the city. The most recent project completed by the team is a playground at Bushwick’s J.H.S. 162, which will not only serve as a community park, but also aid in absorbing rainfall and reducing pollution. Together the DEP and TPL will work to open 40 school playgrounds which will feature infrastructure to capture stormwater and prevent combined sewer overflow (CSO). During periods of heavy rainfall the city’s sewer system can become flooded with rainwater which when combined with wastewater, can produce CSO and pollute local waterways.
“Working with JHS 162 students and Bushwick neighbors to create a fun place to ...
