As part of National Minority Health Month 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) released two reports detailing the type of care received by individuals as part of Medicare Advantage (MA). “This is the first time that CMS has released Medicare Advantage data on racial and ethnic disparities in care separately for women and men,” said Dr. Cara James, Director of the CMS Office of Minority Health in a news release. “Showing the data this way helps us to understand the intersection between a person’s race, ethnicity, and gender and their health care.” One report focuses on gender and revealed “sizable differences” (both positive and negative) in the quality of treatment for certain conditions among MA ...
Water Wellness Alert!!! Did you know that between 50-75% of your body is made of water? Drinking enough water to keep your body hydrated is an important part of staying healthy for kids and adults. One of the simplest ways that we can make sure that kids are drinking adequate water (and skipping the sugar-sweetened beverages!) is to include access to drinking water in school wellness policies. Including water in your policy helps to keep it top of mind for school staff and ensures that water won’t become less of a priority if the administration changes. Now is a great time for schools to update their wellness policies. All schools participating in federal nutrition programs must update their policies to comply with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s final rule by June 30, ...
Stephen Lucke's life forever when he took a college nutrition class. Lucke, an aspiring doctor who was studying biochemistry at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas (63% Latino) a few years ago, realized that healthy food could help stop people from getting sick in the first place. He was so motivated to help that he immediately helped start a campus wellness program in 2011. He helped start a fruit and vegetable garden on campus a few months later. “I just really became educated about the obesity epidemic,” Lucke said. “You know San Antonio was the most obese city in 2007.”
Food Access Needed in San Antonio
As he worked to maintain gardens on the UIW campus, Lucke began to realize a severe lack of community gardens and a lack of garden ...
More Americans than ever before are stressed, depressed, and coping with anxiety on a regular basis. According to a new study, an estimated 8.3 million adults in the U.S. (close to 3.5%) suffer from serious psychological distress. What’s worse, many are unable to get the help they need to either treat there conditions or even get a diagnosis. In a separate report, the American Psychological Association (APA) found disparities in their recent Stress in America survey, noting that Latinos in particular suffer from the highest levels of stress. “Latinos reported the highest stress across four major sources of stress including money, employment, family responsibilities and health concerns,” the survey said. From the survey, 1 in 5 Latinos report never having engaged in any ...
Connecticut would be the first State to consider a statewide soda tax if conversations continue. Cities like Berkely and Philadelphia have passed a tax and have already seen progress in terms of reducing soda consumption and improving funding for education and public health initiatives. For Connecticut, the conversation around soda taxes began back in 2014 when a Congressional representative from Connecticut proposed a national soda tax bill in the house of representatives, but the idea has come back up now as the bill was introduced by the state Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee and Lawmakers on Tuesday, April 11th at a public hearing. According to local new source Fox 61 the tax would charge consumers of sugary drinks a penny -per ounce and exempt drinks that are ...
The newly released UConn Rudd Center Parents’ Attitudes Towards Food Marketing Report highlights parents’ views about food marketing to children and food self-industry regulation, and their support for policies to help encourage healthy eating for their children. The Rudd Center surveyed over 3,500 parents with children ages 2 to 17. Researchers used a cross-sectional sample of parents, including black, Hispanic, and low-income parents, and assessed changes from 2012 to 2015. Because we don't live in a bubble, building a culture of health requires a look at food companies' marketing practices. For example, baby food marketing to Latino parents does not align with expert opinion, and 90% of snack food ads push unhealthy options to Latino kids. according to two other reports by ...
Many factors influence early childhood development, school readiness, and health. For example, Latino parents are less likely to engage their children in preliteracy activities or read books to them leading to cognitive and oral communication gaps in Latino children. Culturally relevant parent counseling, education and support can play a huge role in childhood literacy and health, because kids who do better in school become healthier adults. Three groups in Walla Walla, Washington (21.6% Latino) worked together to create a 10-week series of FREE parenting master classes, Abriendo Puertas-Spanish for Opening Doors-that use a Latino cultural perspective and are taught in Spanish. The three groups are, Walla Walla Valley Early Learning Coalition, the Walla Walla Community College ...
Nearly 1 in 5 Latinos suffers a mental health problem. But Latinos are less likely than other groups to seek out treatment for mental health conditions. They fear being stigmatized. They lack of health insurance. They face cultural barriers. Or they simply a fail to recognize symptoms. That’s why we at Salud America! are spotlighting heroes who are improving mental health for Latino families!
Irán Barrera: Helping Latinos Answer Mental Health Questions
Dr. Irán Barrera believes there is a difference between mainstream mental health and Latino mental health. Latinos don't use words like anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress. This means health professionals need training to address Latinos' mental health needs. That's why Barrera applied for and received ...
Economic stability is often one of the most important determining factors of a person’s – and a family’s – overall health. The stress associated with money often leads to severe negative health conditions and can severely impact children’s abilities to succeed in school. Recognizing that many Latinos live in low-income, high-poverty, and high-crime areas, the Hispanic Wealth Project (HWP) has made it its mission to triple Hispanic household wealth by the year 2024. To accomplish this goal, they have defined three components to help them achieve this: advancing sustainable homeownership
improving the success of Latino entrepreneurs
increasing Latino investments beyond cash assets “The Hispanic Wealth Project is built on the premise that all Americans ...
