// 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 ...
Check out this new report from the National Academies Press about food security for all people. The report summarizes results from two recent food security workshops hosted by the National Research Council's Science and Technology for Sustainability Program. The first workshop, Measuring Food Insecurity and Assessing the Sustainability of Global Food Systems, explored the availability and quality of commonly used indicators for food security and malnutrition; poverty; and natural resources and agricultural productivity. The second workshop, Exploring Sustainable Solutions for Increasing Global Food Supplies, focused specifically on assuring the availability of adequate food supplies. How can food production be increased to meet the needs of a population expected to reach over 9 ...
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. Laura Reyes
San Antonio, Texas Laura Reyes is a native South Texan who developed a thirst for knowledge early in life, often visiting the library as a child with her mother, who was going through grad school. As she continued to seek knowledge, her interest in science and the human body grew, and she eventually attended Loyola New Orleans University. Then the Hurricane Katrina disaster brought her back to San Antonio—a fortuitous transfer to St. Mary’s University that eventually got her interested in research techniques. Reyes now is a master’s of public health ...
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 18 is Dr. Zan Gao. Find all briefs here. Dr. Zan Gao
“Impact of Physical Activity on Fitness & Academic Performance” In his Salud America! pilot research project, Dr. Zan Gao of Texas Tech University examined the impact of a structured exercise program (interactive video game Dance Dance Revolution [DDR], in which players stomp on a dance mat to mimic steps of an on-screen dancer; aerobic dance; and jump rope) on physical fitness and academic performance in urban Latino children. Key preliminary findings include: children who participate in a structured exercise program at school are ...
Marynieves Diaz-Mendez has been selected as the 2011 LIVESTRONG Promotora of the Year. Diaz-Mendez, a trained physician in her native Cuba, is a promotora—or trained community health educator—who has been working with Redes En Acción in the California Bay Area to increase Latino cancer survivors’ access to and knowledge of LIVESTRONG national navigation services. Redes En Acción is a national Latino cancer research network led by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. LIVESTRONG, founded by cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, connects cancer patients and survivors to the support they need, leverages funding and resources to spur innovation and engages communities and leaders to drive ...
You now have until March 9, 2012, to apply for the 2012 Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program! Éxito! conducts a five-day summer institute and offers $2,000 internships to encourage minority master’s-level students and master’s trained health professionals to pursue a doctoral degree and a career in Latino cancer health disparities research. The 2012 summer institute is June 7-12, 2012, in San Antonio, Texas. Éxito! participants also are eligible to receive one of six paid internships (see details in application). How exactly can the program benefit you? Ask Mariana Arevalo, a graduate of the 2011 Éxito! program: “Éxito! was a boost of confidence and a tremendous encouragement for me to apply to doctoral programs. Now more than ever, I’m confident ...
