Grant County, New Mexico (50% Latino). Luna County, New Mexico (65% Latino). Two counties. Both rural, largely Latino, with high poverty. Only 68 miles apart. Yet health is failing in one county, and prospering in the other. Why is this? What can we do?
Health Ratings: Luna vs. Grant
U.S News & World Report's new Healthiest Communities rankings use a 100-point scale to assess well-being in 3,000 U.S. counties. Metrics include economic, educational, and health outcome Grant County scored 62 of 100. Luna County scored 31 of 100. Grant ranks in the top-third of counties. They rank 20th among other rural communities with up-and-coming economies. Luna ranks in the bottom-third of counties. In health outcomes, Grant is doing better than Luna in many aspects: ...
Latinos often mistrust of doctors and scientists. In turn, they don't seek preventive healthcare or join helpful clinical trials. In fact, even though Latinos make up 17.8% of the national population and are the largest ethnic minority, Latinos comprised of less than 7.6% of clinical trial participants. The Global Institute for Hispanic Health aims to change all that.
Global Institute for Hispanic Health
The Texas A&M University System and Driscoll Children’s Hospital launched the Global Institute for Hispanic Health in 2016. It's based at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi. It has other campuses in Brownsville, Harlingen, McAllen, Laredo, and Victoria. The Global Institute brings researchers, clinicians, and communities together to improve Latinos' ...
Two majority-Latino communities are among the four winners of the 2018 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Culture of Health Prize! San Antonio, Texas (63.6% Latino) and Cicero, Ill. (88.8% Latino) were chosen from nearly 200 applicants. Eatonville, Fla., and Klamath County, Ore., also won. These communities made strong efforts to build a culture of health is where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. They brought neighborhood, school, and business partners together to improve health for all residents. Winning communities get a $25,000 prize and will have their inspiring stories shared by RWJF. “These inspiring places are engaging community members in decision making to give all residents the opportunity to live well, no matter where they ...
Latinos immigrants face a big lack of access to support for economic stability, education, and health. To best support Latino immigrant and all families, research shows a need to develop and support high-quality early care and education programs, home environments free of chronic stress, and poverty-reducing programs and policies. To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, let’s use #SaludTues on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018, to tweet about innovative ways to improve health equity and well-being for immigrant and all families! WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat─Let's Improve Immigrant Health!
TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludAmerica
CO-HOSTS: The Society of Behavioral Medicine ...
Health starts and is sustained in the communities we live, work, and play. However, in many places, affordable housing is not available, subjecting families to unstable, inferior, and crowded housing while isolating them in areas with limited access to education and employment opportunities. This reduces their ability to stay healthy. It increases their risk of physical and mental health issues. Achieving and maintaining good health requires the efforts of urban and transportation planners, housing experts, elected leaders, educators, and many more. UPDATE: View a recap of this Tweetchat on Wakelet. Use #SaludTues on August 21, 2018, to tweet about why affordable housing matters for health, and what you can do to create healthier places to live! WHAT: #SaludTues ...
More than 60% of U.S. Latinos struggle to communicate with a healthcare provider due to a language or cultural barriers, according to a new poll. In response, these Latinos rely on family or other healthcare providers for help, according to the poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. 1 in 4 of these Latinos even look into translating services to help with health issues. The new poll supports past findings that 83% of Latinos report obtaining some of their health-related information from media sources (TV, Internet, etc.) and that 70% list family, friends, churches, or community groups as their main sources of health information. "The language and cultural barriers in health care for Latinos are something advocates have been pointing out for years," ...
Our roads and walkways could be our path to good health and wellbeing. But cities are stuck in a rut of prioritizing cars over people. Thankfully, over the past decade, many organizations are contributing to the growing body of health and safety research and advocacy to influence transportation projects and policies.
Knowing the Impact
In 2012, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a research brief and infographic on how transportation affects health. “Health costs associated with traffic crashes, air pollution, and physical inactivity add up to hundreds of billions of dollars each year, but health is typically not considered in transportation policy and planning,” the 2012 Health Policy Snapshot Issue Brief states.
Changing the Speed Limit
In 2011, the AAA ...
Toddlers and preschoolers who grow up amid poverty and racism are at a developmental disadvantage and face lifelong social, health and economic consequences that hinder health equity, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). This includes Latino kids, who are prone to hardships in early childhood. Experiencing poverty and racism in the first five years of life can “set off a vicious cycle of inequities” from obesity, stress, and developmental problems that affect adulthood and future generations. Fortunately, the report explores ways to overcome or prevent these damaging effects. “Reducing child poverty, eliminating structural racism, and providing universal high-quality early care ...
Transportation affects health. Latinos, for example, often face unsafe streets and big transportation hurdles that make it hard, costly, and even deadly to access basic and health needs. They end up suffering higher rates of disease, diabetes, depression, pedestrian injuries and deaths, and more. Yet transportation and public health professionals don’t always get together for solutions. Fortunately, the Transportation Research Board is enabling these connections. The Board created its Health & Transportation Subcommittee in 2011, hosted a topical conference and magazine edition in 2015, and will carve out space in its 2018 annual meeting to explore this topic. “[We aim] to identify, advance and publish research and information to expand and improve current ...
