Need inspiration or help finding the way to quit smoking? There is good news: The Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR), the team behind SaludToday, has developed ¡Buena Vida! A Guide to Help You Quit Smoking. The booklet offers Latinos info, tools and tips for quitting smoking, and tells the stories of five Latinos who have quit, like Estefanía Villareal (pictured at right). Read the booklet in English. Read the booklet in Spanish. Find out more about the IHPR's materials to help Latinos quit ...
Periodically we'll feature a faculty member from the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. Today it's Dan Hughes. Daniel Hughes, who came to the U.S. from Mexico City as a child, went on to get his chemical engineering degree and spent two decades working his way from engineering to middle management at Dow Chemical. But, in his mid-40s, his life changed. A close friend and long-time colleague suffered lung cancer with complications for years before succumbing to the disease. Several close family members also died of cancer, including close cousins and the aunt who brought him to the U.S. He reflected on his life’s work—a “serious midlife crisis,” friends and family called it. He called it a ...
Check out the latest on health disparities stories, news and funding in the Winter 2009 E-newsletter from the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. The newsletter features: The story behind SaludToday
Using texting to promote fitness among Latina girls
A new "hub" for Latino cancer health disparities research
A new guide to help Latinos quit smoking
Research funding opportunties
Health disparities events
Health disparities resources For this and much more, check out our new ...
The National Urban League on Dec. 7, 2009, announced its support the recommendations of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Commission to Build a Healthier America. "The members of the Commission should be applauded for helping to expand the discussion surrounding how we reform the country’s health system. The Commission released 10 recommendations for dramatic improvements in the health of all Americans, particularly those who face the greatest barriers to good health. "The recommendations are a welcome addition to the country’s health reform debate, and we look forward to working with the members of the Commission, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, policymakers and other stakeholders to make these proposals a reality." Recommendations from the Robert Wood Johnson ...
Rates of new diagnoses and rates of death from all cancers combined declined significantly in the most recent time period for men and women overall and for most racial and ethnic populations in the U.S., according to a report from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The drops are driven by declines in rates of new cases and rates of death for the three leading in men (lung, prostate, and colorectal cancers) and for two of the three leading cancers in women (breast and colorectal cancer). The NCI findings were published online Dec. 7, 2009, in the journal Cancer. Among racial/ethnic groups, cancer death rates were highest in black men and women and lowest in Asian/Pacific Islander men and women. Although trends in death rates by race/ ethnicity were similar for most cancer sites, ...
Several restaurants in Monterey County, Calif., have added healhier items like yogurt with fruit, oatmeal and trans-fat meals to their traditional taqueria fare, according to the Salinas Californian. The restaurants took part in an initiative to teach taqueria owners about healthier foods. About 14 of the 16 owners who participated began to offer healthier side dishes, and seven added entrees with fewer calories and fat, but with more fruits and vegetables. For years, county officials have educated owners of taquerias, staples of Latino communities, about nutrition and helped them add healthier food options to their menus. One of the owners, Gloria Del Real (pictured), now cooks with olive oil rather than soybean oil. The program was featured in a recent issue of ...
Latino men who are more adapted to U.S. culture are more likely to quit smoking than their less-acculturated counterparts, according to research by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center released Dec. 3, 2009, from the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. The study of 271 Latino smokers who called a Spanish-language smoking cessation quitline examined the influence of gender and indicators of acculturation on the ability to quit smoking. Men who had been in the U.S. for up to five years had about 20 percent smoking abstinence rate at three months after the quitline program. But more than 35 percent of men who had been in the U.S. for 23-76 years abstained. Those who preferred to view news and entertainment mainly or exclusively in English ...
Latinos are less likely to die from cancer than other groups, but have higher rates of cancers related to infections (stomach, liver and cervix) and are more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease, according to Cancer Facts & Figures for Hispanics 2009-2011, a new American Cancer Society report. For many cancer types, Hispanics are far more likely than whites to be diagnosed in advanced stages of disease, when the cancer is likely to be less treatable. The report highlights the need for programs that target Hispanics, from addressing disparities in income, education, and access to health care to better understanding cultural values and ...
Ask Estefanía Evia Villareal (pictured) the best thing about not smoking any more and the 21-year-old will give you a variety of answers, beginning with the way she feels every morning when she wakes up. “First of all," she said, "that feeling of being fresh – being clean, fresh, the smell of my sheets and my clothes, (the feeling in) my mouth, my throat." Estefanía, a recent graduate of UT San Antonio who plans to get her teaching certificate so she can eventually teach elementary school children, had been a smoker for the past five years, starting in high school. Earlier this year she decided to kick the habit. It took a little while and there were some stops and starts, but when she finally quit smoking, she did it one day at a time. She walks for an hour three times a ...
