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. Christina Munoz-Masso
Puerto Rico Christina Munoz-Masso works hard to improve the health of boricuas—Puerto Ricans—and Latinos in general. She is an epidemiologist at the University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center. She coordinates a study investigating DNA methylation in leukemia patients and collaborates on a population-based study on cervical cancer. After Munoz-Masso graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in biology, she applied for a master’s degree in epidemiology because it allowed her to combine science with helping people. To add an ...
The Ad Council and several governmental agencies partnered to create a culturally appropriate series of public service announcements (PSAs) to address childhood obesity among communities of color, Forbes reports. The campaign's Latino-focused PSA encourages parents to help their kids achieve a healthy body ...
LIVESTRONG recently announced the creation of an iPad App to help people manage their cancer experience. The app, called LIVESTRONG Cancer Guide App + Tracker, lets you store and access information relevant to your treatment and survivorship electronically to your iPad. The tracker helps you track your daily symptoms, provides space for you to journal your experience, keep track of important records and contact information. The app's Cancer Guide will help you know what to expect, learn what questions to ask, and connect to resources. Read more about the app or watch a video here or ...
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. Donaji Stelzig
Houston, Texas Contributing in several research studies at the University of Texas School of Public Health’s Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research in Houston, Mexico native Donaji Stelzig developed a desire to work with minority populations, promote opportunities, and foster team work with diverse background community members. Since then, she’s become a full-time senior health education specialist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Division of Public Affairs, carrying out community outreach. Stelzig is part of many ...
A new research synthesis by Active Living Research examines studies indicating that racial/ethnic minorities and lower-income people live in communities that are not as supportive of physical activity. The synthesis summarizes research on racial/ethnic and economic disparities in obesity and physical activity rates among children, and highlights policy recommendations for decision-makers who can support physical activity among people in lower-income communities and communities of color. Key research results suggest that racial/ethnic minorities and lower-income people: are more likely to live in neighborhoods with fewer and lower-quality sidewalks, and fewer aesthetic amenities like scenery that make walking safer, easier and more appealing;
tend to live in neighborhoods ...
Diabetes, a disease that is expected to affect 9.9% of the world's adult by 2030, takes an especially heavy toll on U.S. Hispanics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Huffington Post reports. Hispanics have double the risk of developing diabetes compared with non-Hispanic whites, according to a CDC a study on diabetes prevalence among Hispanics in California, Florida, Illinois, New York/New Jersey, Texas, and Puerto Rico from 1998 to 2002. The CDC study also found that: Hispanics tend to develop diabetes at a younger age
The prevalence of diabetes decreased with higher education levels; among Hispanics with less than a high school education, 11.8% had diabetes, compared to 7% of college graduates Read the full news report. Watch an ...
The 2012 Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training application is now available for download! Éxito! conducts a five-day summer institute and offers 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 that Latino researchers ...
How do Hispanics use the Internet to get informed on health issues? A MediaPost Blog called Engage:Hispanics sought to answer this question and found that, despite a strong demand for health content online among Hispanics, there is very little of it available in Spanish:
According to comScore, Hispanic usage of health care websites is growing twice as fast as the general market. In September 2011, a total of 17.2 million Hispanics visited a health-related website; this represents 52% of all online Hispanics and an annual growth rate of 31%.
Compare this to the general market, where 66% of online users visited a health site in September 2010, up 15% from the previous year. The fact that most Hispanics are young helps explain why they are less likely than the general market to visit ...
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, ...
