Food insecurity remains one of the country’s most troubling conditions that plague many Latino families. Feeding America has determined that Latinos are more than twice as likely to be food insecure as Whites. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to support food and nutrition assistance programs giving aid to low-income households. More than 20% of all Latinos are food insecure as compared to just 10% of all Americans and nearly 25% of all Latino children live in a food-insecure household. In 2014, of the 92 counties with a majority Latino/Hispanic population, 18% were among the top 10 of counties with the highest rates of childhood food insecurity. In order to reduce health disparities, it is critical to ...
Dentists in Fairbanks, Alaska (7.0% Latino) have partnered with the state Division of Public Health, to help reduce sugary drink consumption in their patients and work to decrease childhood obesity, according to Newsminer.com. The Latino population in Fairbanks has grown rapidly reported the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development that detailed the trend, highlighting a 52% growth rate for Hispanic or Latino residents in Alaska from 2000 to 2010. Many Latino kids and teens drink more sugary drinks on a daily basis than their white peers, sometimes even up to three drinks a day studies show, and with each sugary drink the risk of becoming an obese adult jumps to 60%. Since September of 2016, the public health state workers have started providing training to dental ...
San Antonio’s Eastside Promise Neighborhood (EPN) is a community of about 18,000 residents (67.5% Latino) who face many health disparities driven by socioeconomic inequities in income, education and access to health care. Noemi Villarreal and others at EPN sought ways to improve health care and health equity in the area. To do that, they looked for ways to promote the idea of the “medical home,” in which the patient/family is the center of partnerships with primary care providers, specialists, educational resources, and the entire community. They formed a group of dedicated "Community Connectors" to travel the neighborhood and do whatever was necessary to promote development of a medical home for every home.
Addressing issues in San Antonio
Noemi Villarreal, health ...
Cities across the world have come up with unique methods to make it safer for kids and everyone to bicycle. Safe places to bike-and walk and play-are critical to reduce health disparities and improve Latino and all kid's overall health and wellbeing. In College Station, Texas (14% Latino) the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M designed a protected intersection, modeled after the Dutch Junction, with glow-in-the-dark bike lanes. Bike lanes are, in fact, a sound public health investment. The Dutch Junction is designed to separate cars and bicyclists using islands, moving bicyclists in front motorists and out of their blind spots. To improve path visibility, the bike lanes are coated with a glow-in-the-dark material that absorbs and stores solar energy during the ...
How supportive is your state of walking, bicycling, and physical activity? The Safe Routes to School National Partnership working with the YMCA of the USA, developed Making Strides: State Report Cards to provide a snapshot of how supportive each state is of walking, bicycling, and physical activity for children and adults as of 2016. Physical activity, like walking and biking, are critical to fight childhood obesity and help kids grow up healthy and avoid lifelong, burdensome chronic diseases. The report cards primarily look at state policy focusing on four key areas: Complete Streets and Active Transportation, Safe Routes to School and Active Transportation Funding, Active Neighborhoods and Schools, and State Physical Activity Planning and Support.
In addition to the state ...
Researchers evaluated the cost-effectiveness of investments in bike lanes in New York and found that the return on investment is far better than many preventive approaches in medicine, like dialysis or HIV/AIDS screening and treatment. According to the new study out of the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, every $1,297 invested in bike lanes provided benefits equivalent to one additional year of life at full health. Compare this to $50,000 spent on HIV/AIDS screening and treatment and $129,000 spent on dialysis to provide benefits equivalent to one additional year of life at full health. Read about a pilot bike lane project that received permanent upgrades. “For bike lanes, the cost per QALY [quality-adjust life years] is $1,300, a little bit higher ...
There is no doubt people are zealous about children's safety; we are zealous about children's health. What if these two groups of enthusiasts worked together? They would reduce time spent riding in a car: To reduce unintentional injury and death due to motor vehicle crashes; and
To increase time spent walking and biking to reduce obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Motor vehicle traffic crashes are the leading cause of unintentional injury deaths for children age 5 through young adults age 24 and the second leading cause of unintentional injury deaths for children ages 1-4, after drowning. Keep in mind, this is with the latest advancements in child safety seats. Latinos, in particular, face disparities in traffic injury and death, as well as obesity, heart disease, ...
About 60% of kids under the age of 6 are placed in some form of non-parental care-early childcare and education (ECE)-during the work week. Thus, these settings are promising environments to provide obesity-prevention resources and establish physical activity habits early in childhood, particularly for Latino kids who are at greater risk for obesity-related health problems than their white peers. In 2012, researchers in Wisconsin developed a year-long, quasi-experimental study to examine the efficacy of the Active Early guide, an 80-page guide developed by experts and statewide partners in the fields of ECE, public health, and physical activity, to improve physical activity opportunities in ECE settings using low- to no-cost strategies along with training and environmental ...
Where your city spends money (public investment) determines if you have access to parks, sidewalks, nutritious food, and public transportation, all of which have a far greater impact on your health than health care. In order for parents to keep their kids active and healthy, communities need to provide safe places to walk, bike, and play. Unfortunately, many Latino neighborhoods are missing these places due to inequitable distribution of public funds. Read more about inequity in public spending here. San Antonio residents (63.2% Latino) have the opportunity get involved in deciding where the city should spend $850 million over the next five years. “In some ways we’re kind of battling against history,” said San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor according to one source. “You go ...
