The 2012 International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Annual Meeting, set for May 23-26, 2012, in Austin, Texas, is a unique opportunity to learn about behavioral nutrition and physical activity, interact with a broad constituency of leaders, and gain new insight into innovations in research, policy and practice. Register here. See a list of key speakers and special features here. Salud America! The RWJF Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children, is an event sponsor. Salud America! is led by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind ...
In the past, food insecurity and obesity were viewed as separate public health problems, yet research now shows that people with unreliable access to food are also more likely to be obese. A new brief, Making the Connection: Linking Policies that Prevent Hunger and Childhood Obesity, released by Leadership for Healthy Communities, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, provides policymakers seeking to address hunger in their communities with policy options that can also contribute significantly to reversing the childhood obesity epidemic. Some of the policy strategies outlined in the brief include: Establishing healthy food financing initiatives to increase access to nutritious foods;
Supporting farm-to-institution, farm-to-school and school garden ...
Editor’s Note: This is a 20-part series featuring new research briefs on Latino childhood obesity, nutrition, physical activity and more by the 20 grantees of Salud America! Part 19 is Dr. Nelda Mier. Dr. Nelda Mier
“Built Environment Policy for Physical Activity in Mexican-American Children” In her Salud America! pilot research project, Dr. Nelda Mier of the Texas A&M Health Science Center investigated Latino children’s perceptions of environmental factors that influence their physical activity, and documented environmental characteristics in colonias in South Texas. Colonias are unincorporated settlements along the U.S.-Mexico border where many people live in impoverished conditions and lack basic services such as running water. Key preliminary findings ...
Latinos, you may not know how important it is for cancer researchers to have racial/ethnic biospecimens. Increasing the number of Latino biospecimens—or samples of biological material, such as blood, urine, saliva, tissue, tumors, etc.—will be critical to accelerating our understanding of the molecular basis of cancer and creating a more accurate genome in many types of cancers that disproportionately affect Latinos. This, in turn, will lead to the development of better diagnostic tools; and ultimately, to improve our ability to diagnose, treat and prevent cancer among all people. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) is a joint effort between the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). TCGA uses an integrated approach of connecting ...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has launched a new mobile website, m.cancer.gov. Designed specifically for mobile phone users on any mobile platform, the site in English and Spanish offers much of the same high-quality information found on cancer.gov's desktop site. Available in English and Spanish, m.cancer.gov provides cancer patients, their loved ones, and their caregivers with credible, current information about: A wide range of cancer types
Cancer diagnosis and treatment
Dealing with treatment side effects
Questions to ask your doctor
Breaking and current cancer news
A dictionary of cancer terms that includes audio pronunciations
One-touch connection to NCI's 1-800-4-CANCER information specialist line In the future, additional content, including information about ...
// Check out Text4baby, a free bilingual mobile information service that provides pregnant women and new moms with information to help them care for their health and give their babies the best possible start in life. Sign up for the service by texting BABY (or BEBE for Spanish) to 511411. Once enrolled, three free SMS messages are sent each week, timed to either a woman’s due date or baby’s date of birth. Text4baby has proven beneficial effects, according to a recent study of 122 women by the National Latino Research Center at California State University, San Marcos, and the University of California, San Diego: 64% reported text4baby helped them remember an appointment or immunization they or their child needed.
75.4% reported that a text4baby message informed them of ...
Editor's Note: This is the testimonial of a graduate of the 2011 Summer Institute of Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training. Read more testimonials here or apply by March 1 for the 2012 Èxito! program. Marievelisse Soto-Salgado
Puerto Rico Marievelisse Soto-Salgado grew up dedicated to solving public health problems in what she calls “La Isla del Encanto”—her hometown of San Juan, Puerto Rico. She got her passion for science and research through her time obtaining a bachelor’s degree in general sciences and a master’s degree in public health. She’s even been working for several years with a team of researchers at the University of Puerto Rico on a National Cancer Institute-funded cancer research project, and she coordinates a Biostatistics and Bioinformatics ...
Adult obesity rates were higher than 15% in all but three of 190 metropolitan areas surveyed in 2011, according to a Gallup and Healthways report. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, residents—who are predominantly Latino—were the most likely to be obese, at 38.8%. Nationwide, 26.1% of American adults were obese in 2011. The Gallup report indicates that the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area pays more than $400 million in unnecessary healthcare costs each year because of its high obesity rate. "If it reduced the obesity rate to 15%," according to the report, "the area could potentially save more than $250 million ...
A study of San Antonio-area kidney cancer patients shows a strong link to diabetes, with the most advanced cancers found in those with the worst control over their blood sugar, the San Antonio Express-News reports. The study, led by Dr. Samy Habib of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio and recently published in the Journal of Cancer, reviewed the medical records of 473 local patients who underwent surgery for clear cell renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer, between 1994 and 2009. Of those, 120, or 25.4%, had a history of diabetes. About 75% of the diabetics were Hispanic and tended to be younger than ...
