The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will award 10 research grants of more than $7 million aimed at eliminating inequities in access to care and improving the oral health of children. These awards support the Multidisciplinary and Collaborative Research Consortium to Reduce Oral Health Disparities in Children an initiative of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). “By establishing this research consortium, NIDCR seeks to lead national efforts in reducing childhood oral health disparities,” said NIDCR Director Dr. Martha Somerman. “Among the projects awarded are those that test innovative health promotion and disease prevention strategies and evaluate and refine existing programs and policies.” It has been reported by the NIDCR that children ...
Westwood Unidos and Re:Vision, two local organizations in the Westwood neighborhood of Denver, Colo. (31.2% Latino population) were already working to make the area a healthier place for families. Westwood Unidos organized local community members, like Fany Mendez, to teach fitness classes in their spare time wherever they could, such as schools, churches, and even bars. When Westwood Unidos learned about a small building that was going to be torn down on a piece of land recently purchased by Re:Vision, Westwood Unidos raised the money to transform the building into a community center named La Casita, with educational and physical activity classes taught by Mendez and local community members.
Westwood Families Not Active Enough
Fany Mendez, before she became the Coordinator of La ...
Nearly 1 in 3 Latino kids is already overweight or obese by ages 2-5, an alarming trend that often continues into youth and adulthood. How can we prevent early childhood obesity? It will take public-private partnerships, more effective interventions, and more, according to a new report on a recent meeting of the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The Roundtable, which engages leaders from multiple sectors to address obesity, includes Dr. Amelie Ramirez, director of SaludToday, Salud America!, and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. The Roundtable's new report covers lots of early childhood obesity questions.
What's working to prevent early obesity? ...
In the San Antonio, Texas area (69% Latino) families, health care leaders like Dr. Mark Gilger, and philanthropy groups like the Goldsbury Foundation are exploring what healthy and culturally fun Latino meals look like with the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio’s new Culinary Health Education for Families (CHEF) program. Aiming to be a new culinary health model for families needing help in preventing diet-related disease such as childhood diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, the goal of the program is to provide San Antonio residents with tools, resources, and education to lead healthier lives and encourage healthy weights for children.
EMERGENCE
Awareness/Learn: Dr. Mark Gilger, pediatrician-in-chief at the Children’s Hospital in San Antonio, has seen first-hand a local and ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of Minority Health has recently released data detailing the quality of care received by people with Medicare Advantage by racial or ethnic groups. Based on the analysis from two sources, researchers analyzed how well the needs of Medicare beneficiaries are met for a variety of medical issues, several of which are disproportionately felt by the Latino population such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic lung disease. “This is the first time that CMS has released Medicare Advantage data stratified by race and ethnicity. Increasing understanding and awareness of disparities and their causes is the first step of our path to equity,” said Dr. Cara James, director of the CMS Office of Minority Health. ...
Two recent studies demonstrate that a universal screening program developed by Kaiser Permanente increased the number of women diagnosed with and treated for depression during and after pregnancy. In the U.S. over 30% of Latinas report suffering from depression related to childbirth and according to a recent study this rate continues to grow. As part of the screening program, Kaiser Permanente screened women using a nine question survey that was later shared with an obstetrician who reviewed the results and when depressive symptoms were present referred the patients to support groups and classes. “We identified best practices, empowered advocates on site to help educate obstetricians, streamlined the work flow for screening during obstetric office visits and used data to ...
According to a recent study led by Duke Clinical Research Institute childhood obesity in the United States has not declined and severe obesity remains high. Dr. Sarah Armstrong pediatrician and director of the Duke Healthy Lifestyles Program said in a recent video in regards to the childhood obesity epidemic that, "Not seeing changes in the actual numbers, as this study points out, certainly is problematic, because there have been all the efforts aimed towards it." Researchers found that 33.4 percent of children between the ages of 2 through 19 were overweight and among those 17.4 percent had obesity. The results showed the continued increase of obesity among children from 1999 through 2014. Also according to the recent article 4.5 million children and adolescents had severe ...
April is National Minority Health Month and we’re excited to tweet about ways to prevent the greatest health disparities affecting Latinos across the U.S. today! The rising Latino population is creating an urgent need to tackle disparities in obesity, diabetes, and cancer. The estimated cost of health inequities is over $309 billion! Time to take action! WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Taking Action to Address Latino Health Disparities
TIME/DATE: Noon CST (1 p.m. EST) Tuesday, April 19, 2016
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludToday
CO-HOSTS: The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (@NIMHD), Kaiser Permanente (@kpvivabien) & 100 Million Healthier Lives (@100MLives) We’ll open the floor to your comments, stories and ...
Children and teens that become or stay obese may face up to three times the risk for developing high blood pressure, according to a new report from the HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research in Bloomington, Minn. This has strong implications for Latino children, nearly 40% of whom are overweight or obese, compared to about 32% of all U.S. children. For the study, the researchers collected data on more than 100,000 children and teens in California, Colorado, and Minnesota—which have growing Latino population segments—between 2007 and 2011. During the study, 0.3% of the kids developed high blood pressure. The researchers found that kids ages 3-11 who went from overweight to obese had more than twice the odds of developing high blood pressure during the short ...
