The Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) recently awarded $265,000 to a researcher from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio who is working with the YMCA of Greater San Antonio to encourage healthy living and cancer prevention. Dr. Deborah Parra-Medina, professor in the Health Science Center’s Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR), is co-directing “Y Living,” a lifestyle program for cancer prevention and risk reduction. “This collaborative project uses a community-based, family-focused approach. We’ll work with families to promote physical activity, a balanced diet and increased awareness of the impact of a healthy lifestyle on cancer risk reduction,” Dr. Parra-Medina said. “We’ll provide health education, ...
El Paso, Texas, which is considered among the nation's least healthy cities, struggles with high rates of obesity and diabetes, Borderzine reports. More than 85,000 residents in El Paso, which is 82% Hispanic, have diabetes. That's why the El Paso Diabetes Association aims to eliminate diabetes and its complications through empowerment, promotion, detection and access. The agency organizes community events to get people more involved with the organization, raise awareness, promote their services and help people control the disease. For example, a Diabetes Walk/Run helps raise money for the organization every year. To learn more, watch this ...
Hispanics, who make up 60 percent of Bexar County’s population and almost 40 percent of Texas’, face special cancer risks.
Minimizing those risks is the subject of a free public lecture to be held at 6 p.m. CST Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011, on the fourth floor of the Grossman Building at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7979 Wurzbach Road.
"In the Hispanic population, we tend to put off prevention because we don't think it's going to happen to us," said Dr. Amelie Ramirez, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center. "And cancer's one of those things we don't like to talk about."
For instance, Dr. Ramirez said, about 40 percent of Hispanic women do not have yearly ...
UT Health Science Center at San Antonio researcher Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez "has impacted the health and lives of thousands of South Texans" through her 30 years of health education, promotion and research in and with Latino communities, according to a health/prevention profile article in the San Antonio Business Journal. Dr. Ramirez currently targets Latino health issues as director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the Health Science Center. The IHPR is the research team behind national research networks on Latino cancer (Redes En Acción) and Latino child obesity (Salud America!). Dr. Ramirez, in the article, says prevention is the key to improving health:
“We’re not just doing research for the purpose of doing research,” says Ramirez. “We are doing ...
This summer, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD) is focusing attention on the topic of cancer health disparities. The NCI works to reduce the unequal burden of cancer incidence and mortality in our society by supporting research to identify and understand the factors that contribute to disparities. NCI also funds studies to develop and disseminate culturally appropriate interventions. Go here for details on disparities and related research, support, statistics, training opportunities and ...
A community health worker (CHW) helps patients—in San Antonio, that typically means Latino patients—navigate the complex world of cancer care, according to a San Antonio Express-News article about CHWs.
The article focuses on Guadalupe Cornejo, a CHW at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. Cornejo is partialy supported through the IHPR's Latino cancer research network, Redes En Acción, via a partnership with LIVESTRONG. Cornejo's job includes answering questions, helping patients make appointments and apply for services and, when necessary, acting as a liaison between patients and the medical system.
“Research has shown that this population is more likely to fall through the cracks when it ...
Adult obesity rates increased in 16 states in the past year and did not decline in any state, according to F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2011, a report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Twelve states now have obesity rates above 30% (vs. only one four years ago). Racial/ethnic minorities continue to have the highest overall obesity rates: Latino adult obesity rates topped 35% in four states (Mississippi, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Texas) and at least 30% in 23 states.
Black adult obesity rates topped 40% in 15 states, 35% in 35 states, and 30% in 42 states and D.C.
Meanwhile, white adult obesity rates topped 30% in just four states (Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia) and no ...
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 ...
Watch a new video that features teachers, principals and staff members talking about the Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC) program in Abilene, Texas. Here's a little about the program from the Texas Hunger Initiative Blog:
BIC aims to take breakfast from school cafeterias and serve it in classrooms to ensure that every student starts the school day with a healthy meal. Many students often miss out on breakfast because they arrive at school late or are afraid of the social stigma that accompanies eating breakfast in the school cafeteria. According to the most recent data, only 56% of eligible Texas students participate in the free breakfast program. Here's the ...
