Sandra San Miguel de Majors, a research instructor at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the Health Science Center at San Antonio, touted the use of community health workers—called promotores—to improve people's health at the Latina Health Policy Briefing for Promotores de Salud on Sept. 26, 2012, at the White House in Washington, D.C. The policy briefing, organized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review the affordable care act, united key Latino health care providers, researchers, stakeholders and promotores to discuss successful evidenced-based Latino research initiatives utilizing promotores. The briefing featured Cecilia Muñoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and Kathleen Sebelius, HHS secretary. San ...
Editor's Note: Apply by March 15 for the 2013 Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. Elie Benavidez, a master’s-degree student at The University of Texas at San Antonio, already is making strides to improve the lives of Latinos. She teaches elementary-school students and volunteers her time to increase local access to healthy food. Now Benavidez, inspired by her mother’s cancer battle, is considering seeking a doctoral degree and doing cancer research. That’s why she and 19 other master’s-level students or health professionals joined the Institute for Health Promotion Research’s second-annual Summer Institute of Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training on June 7-11, 2012, in San Antonio. Exito! encourages participants to pursue a doctoral ...
Cancer is now the leading killer of Hispanics in the U.S., the latest sign it's beginning to displace heart disease as the nation's top cause of death, the Associated Press reports:
The rest of the country may not be far behind, "probably in the next 10 years," said Rebecca Siegel of the American Cancer Society. She is the lead author of a study reporting the new findings. That may be a conservative estimate. Government health statisticians think cancer could overtake heart disease as the top U.S. killer as early as this year, or at least in the next two or three.
For decades, heart disease has been the nation's leading cause of death. But cancer has been closing in on it. That's largely because of better heart disease treatments, including statin drugs that lower cholesterol.
Why is ...
A free telephone/web education program available in English, Spanish or Portuguese is set for 1-2:30 p.m. EST on Sept. 13, 2012. The program, NHL (non-Hodgkin lymphoma) & CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) Diagnosis and Treatment Update, will feature speaker Dr. Christopher R. Flowers from The Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta. Participants will have the opportunity to ask Dr. Flowers a question during the program. This program is sponsored by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) in collaboration with Abrale and Alianza Latina and supported by a grant from Genentech and Biogen Idec. The continuing education portion is sponsored by LLS. To register, go ...
Spanish-speaking Latinos, have you been affected by cancer? If so, you're invited to take a new survey about how to improve cancer-related services from LIVESTRONG. LIVESTRONG, which is currently reaching out to Latinos to offer information about the Spanish services available to those being affected by cancer, hopes survey respondents will identify what additional or future actions need to be taken to improve the cancer community. Find out more information in Spanish or take the survey ...
Latinas tend to have positive attitudes and strong interest in genetic testing for breast cancer risk, yet lacked general knowledge about testing, its risks and benefits, according to a new study led by researchers at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. The study, published recently in the journal Community Medicine & Health Education, conducted focus groups with 58 Latinas in Hidalgo County, a largely Latino part of South Texas. Researchers used analyzed focus group responses and themes and uncovered several cultural factors, such as religious beliefs, that impacted Latinas’ decisions to get genetic testing. “Key Latino values—religiosity, importance of family and the influential ...
Watch these great videos of Jocelyn Martinez and Ignacio Gonzalez, just two of the 110 high school seniors and 32 college students awarded a $2,000 Kaiser Permanente Northwest Career Scholarship in 2012. Martinez wants to become a doctor of oncology, and Gonzalez a pediatrician. The scholarship program encourages diversity in the health care workforce and honors teachers that make a difference in the lives of their students. To learn more, go ...
Armida Flores was a professional abuela—babysitting her granddaughters, volunteering at their schools, etc.—until they moved to California a few years ago. Then Flores wasn’t sure what to do with her newfound spare time. So the Mexico native, who was 30 years removed from school, didn’t know much English and had no career training, decided to enroll in bilingual nursing classes at Palo Alto College in San Antonio and simultaneously earned her GED in Spanish in 2008. She also took beginner and advanced English to polish her language skills, and in May 2012 earned an associate’s degree in social work, psychology and Spanish. “The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was to accept that I am not too old to start a new process in my life,” said Flores. “Now that I ...
