Watch this video to see an exciting public health model that has great potential in the effort to curb childhood obesity and reduce the disparities that exist between poor children and the general population. The Campaign for Healthy Kids video spotlights the Tennessee Coordinated School Health program, a public health model developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide a platform for improving health policies and practices in schools and communities. The program’s coordinator works in schools to ensure they meet best practices for nutrition and physical activity, such as reducing junk food sold in K-12 schools. In the video, see examples of two schools with Coordinated School Health programs—one that is large and relatively affluent and the other, which ...
A Latino boy plays soccer and encourages kids to play and eat right. A Latina girl and her classmates learn about “veggie cousins.” These are two storylines from the new ¡Salud, familia! children’s book series, from Houston-based publisher Arte Público Press, in which young protagonists make choices about healthy eating and active lifestyles to reduce Latino childhood obesity and diabetes. The free books are distributed free through community partners to low-income Hispanic families with school-aged children in both urban and rural areas across the U.S. “Childhood obesity and diabetes among Latinos are already at pandemic levels; we hope to positively influence Latino attitudes towards healthy lifestyles and nutrition at the grass-roots and policy levels,” said ...
For the first time, residents from Carolina to California can find out exactly how healthy their county is.
The health status of nearly every one of the nation's more than 3,000 counties is ranked in the new report, County Health Rankings: Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health, released Feb. 17 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute.
The rankings can be used to mobilize communities to improve health disparities. A USA Today story draws a few generalizations from the rankings:
Healthier counties tend to be urban and suburban, while most (84%) of the 50 least-healthy counties are rural, sparsely populated areas where care is poor and the economy is depressed. Rates of premature death are also significantly higher (2.5 ...
Check out these upcoming events on health disparities: 3rd Annual Conference on Health Disparities
Morehouse School of Medicine, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the Congressional Tri-Caucus will host the third annual Conference on Health Disparities Dec. 2-5, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. This event will focus on bringing equity and justice to health care reform. National Hispanic Health Foundation Scholarship Dinner
The National Hispanic Medical Association's National Hispanic Health Foundation will host its 6th Annual Scholarship Dinner Dec. 3, 2009 in New York City. With support from its partners, the foundation will have provided at least $238,000 in awards to health students who have excellent academic achievement, leadership and commitment to delivering care to the ...
