Active Living Research, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national program, has launched an enhanced website to make it easier for practitioners, advocates and policy-makers working on health equity to find needed, helpful information. New features include: MOVE! blog - The latest information on our work and a way for you to stay updated with what’s going on in the field. You can share your stories by commenting on posts.
Search – A new search function allows you to search all of our resources by keywords or topic areas, including park access, inequality, minorities, and lower-income.
Audience-specific – We’ve added special pages for advocates, practitioners and policy-makers to help you locate information specific to your work depending on your role in the ...
Forty years ago, nearly half of all students walked or biked to school. Now, only 14 percent do. Why the change? One major factor is school siting, the decisions school leaders make about where to build or rehabilitate schools. Over the past several decades, schools have increasingly been built on the outskirts of communities, too far from children’s homes for walking or biking to be practical. Meanwhile, obesity rates in children and adolescents have more than tripled, and a third of children are overweight or obese. Locating schools closer to where families live can make it easier for kids to walk and bike to school—and more convenient for families to use school fields and other facilities after hours, when school is closed. When it comes to ethnicity and socioeconomic ...
Editor’s Note: This is a 20-part series featuring new research briefs on Latino childhood obesity, nutrition, physical activity and more by the 20 grantees of Salud America! Part 14 is Dr. Myriam Torres. Find all briefs here. Dr. Myriam Torres
“Voices of Latina Mothers and School Staff on Childhood Obesity” In her Salud America! pilot research project, Dr. Myriam Torres of the University of South Carolina brought together public health researchers, community leaders and Latino families to study and develop effective policy recommendations regarding physical activity among Latino children from a growing immigrant settlement in West Columbia, S.C. Key preliminary findings include: main barriers to healthy eating and physical activity among Latino children include ...
A new research synthesis by Active Living Research examines studies indicating that racial/ethnic minorities and lower-income people live in communities that are not as supportive of physical activity. The synthesis summarizes research on racial/ethnic and economic disparities in obesity and physical activity rates among children, and highlights policy recommendations for decision-makers who can support physical activity among people in lower-income communities and communities of color. Key research results suggest that racial/ethnic minorities and lower-income people: are more likely to live in neighborhoods with fewer and lower-quality sidewalks, and fewer aesthetic amenities like scenery that make walking safer, easier and more appealing;
tend to live in neighborhoods ...
The City Project has released its policy report, Healthy Parks, Schools and Communities: Green Access and Equity for Southern California, which maps and analyzes park access and equity in nine counties in Southern California using narrative analyses, geographic information system (GIS) mapping tools, and demographic and economic data. While there is an abundance of green space throughout Southern California as a whole, not all residents enjoy equal access to these resources, according to the report, which is in English and Spanish. Children of color—including Latinos—living in poverty with no access to a car suffer first and worst in terms of access to green space and opportunities for physical activity in the nine counties and Southern California overall. Health and quality ...
How can... Latino families overcome barriers to healthy eating? (Page 1)
"Walking school buses" keep Latino kids fit? (Page 3)
Health coaching improve Latino child and family health? (Page 4) Find answers in the new Salud America! E-newsletter. Also find out the latest in Latino childhood obesity policy, news and updates on Salud America!, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) network to prevent obesity among Latino kids. The network is directed by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, which developed SaludToday. Visit Salud America! here. To sign up to receive Salud America! E-newsletters, go ...
U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin has released a report, the Surgeon General's Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation, which recommends ways to improve nutrition and physical activity, include school wellness policies, reduce junk food marketing to children and support walking and biking infrastructure. Yet the report hasn't gotten the same media hype as when First Lady Michelle Obama made it her personal goal to fight against childhood obesity (earlier this week, the first lady met with lawmakers on the issue). But the surgeon general's report has merit, says a Washington Post blogger:
...[the report] talks about personal responsibility, about communities working together, about grassroots efforts. It places the onus for weight loss squarely on the shoulders of individuals. ...
Temperatures soared higher than 100 degrees this July in South Padre Island, Texas, but it didn’t matter to Greg Ayer and his 19-month old daughter, Pamela (pictured). Pamela, who has neuroblastoma, a type of cancer, was thrilled at her first trip to Schlitterbahn Waterpark. “She had a blast for being 19 months old. She rode four rides,” said Greg Ayer, who brings Pamela to her doctor’s appointments in South Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley. “Two months before that, she wasn’t even walking!” The Ayers were among 220 patients and families from Driscoll Children’s Hospital Specialty Center in Brownsville who went to Schlitterbahn on July 30 thanks in part to the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind ...
The Safe Routes to School State Network Project has produced a final report to highlight progress achieved in implementing policies for safer routes to schools, leveraging additional resources and building a supportive environment for Safe Routes to School through other state-level policies. The project included California, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Major project accomplishments included: Improving state DOT Safe Routes to School programs;
Leveraging millions of additional dollars to address traffic safety, education, public health and infrastructure;
Spreading the word about the process of establishing a network and their accomplishments; and
Securing policy changes in school siting, ...
