The USDA is proposing to make online food shopping an option for families in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Up to now, WIC participants had to use vouchers or electronic benefits cards (EBT) at the store. With the proposed changes, participants could shop online for groceries – a move that aims to improve the WIC shopping experience while increasing equity and access to nutritious foods for WIC participants, thus positively impacting nutrition security. May 2023 Update: 329 Salud America! members submitted a model comment and were among over 1,600 people overall to USDA’s proposed changes to enable WIC participants to shop online for food. The model comment was created by Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio in ...
In the small rural Central California town of Selma, a young Trinidad Solis watched long stretches of farmland float by through the car window. She listened to her parents in the front seat discuss their upcoming doctor’s appointment in Spanish. As Mexican immigrant farmworkers, Solis’ parents faced hardships accessing healthcare, including a language barrier. Since her parents were monolingual Spanish-speakers, Solis often served as translator during her parents’ health appointments and helped them navigate the complex healthcare system. These childhood interactions spurred Solis’ desire to become a bilingual, culturally sensitive family physician who could provide healthcare, including infection prevention and control services, to vulnerable patients like her ...
This is part of the "Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos: 2022 Conference Proceedings," which summarizes findings and discussions of the 2022 Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos Conference on Feb. 23-25, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas.
Using Science to Address Latino Health Disparities Research
Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable, M.D., is Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Health disparities and social determinants of health Dr. Pérez-Stable began his presentation by discussing the ways in which science can reduce inequities in healthcare. First, standardized surveys, tools, and measurements are needed so that data can be combined, facilitating discovery through large data sets. ...
This is part of the "Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos: 2022 Conference Proceedings," which summarizes findings and discussions of the 2022 Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos Conference on Feb. 23-25, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas.
Leading Pathways: The Hispanic/Latino Survivorship Study
Dr. Frank Penedo is Associate Director of Cancer Survivorship & Behavioral Translational Sciences at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami. The Leading Pathways study Dr. Penedo began by presenting a summary of Leading Pathways, a Hispanic/Latino survivorship study, a collaboration between the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio and the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami. The study has five key aims, the ...
This is part of the "Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos: 2022 Conference Proceedings," which summarizes findings and discussions of the 2022 Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos Conference on Feb. 23-25, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas.
COVID-19 Past, Present and Future
Dr. Carlos Del Rio is Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Global Health, and Epidemiology. He is also Executive Associate Dean of Emory University School of Medicine, and President-Elect of the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA). The continued presence of COVID Dr. Del Rio began by pointing out that the COVID pandemic is not over, despite gains made over the past year. At the time of his presentation, there were still two million global cases diagnosed daily, and close to 10,000 global ...
This is part of the "Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos: 2022 Conference Proceedings," which summarizes findings and discussions of the 2022 Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos Conference on Feb. 23-25, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas.
Framing Latino Cancer Research and the Census Bureau Data That Enable It
Mr. Robert L. Santos is the Director of the US Census Bureau, the first Latino to serve in that position. Lessons from a vibrant career Director Santos began by sharing wisdom gleaned from 40 years of research, including two ways in which it is important to think differently about research problems. First, researchers tend to emulate the methods and thought processes that they have been taught, but these conventional approaches may become self-propagating, and ...
Good news for Texans! A $3 million grant will help UT Health San Antonio train 275 new community health workers (CHWs) and support an additional 75 CHWs in maintaining state certification. The grant, issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services/Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), will train CHWs across 38 South Texas counties from Brownsville to Laredo, including the area’s rural communities. The grant is part of the federal government’s $226.5 million investment in the nation’s community and public health workforce, announced in September 2022.
The Importance of CHWs
Also known as promotoras de salud and patient navigators, CHWs connect patients to healthcare and facilitate communication between healthcare providers and patients, including ...
The U.S. has a violent child death problem. Developing strategies to prevent violent child death from firearms and traffic crashes is a demanding task that requires consideration of numerous upstream, interrelated, and tangential issues. To help safety advocates develop strategies to prevent violent child death, we compiled five frameworks to help: Understand and explain how proposed strategies will prevent violent child death
Layer multiple strategies to cover shortcomings in strategies
Prioritize upstream primary prevention strategies to improve outcomes for entire populations
Consider the level of intrusiveness of strategies
Apply racial equity tools to ensure equitable adoption/implementation of strategies The five frameworks include: Logic Model/Theory ...
Maternity care deserts make up 36% of all US counties, according a 2022 March of Dimes report. These maternity care deserts contribute to the US having the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries, as they make it significantly harder for women to get the care they need. Let’s explore how maternity care deserts affect women’s health, especially for Latinas, who already face inequities that limit healthcare access.
Defining Access to Maternity Care
The March of Dimes report defines a maternity care desert as any county without a hospital or birth center offering obstetric (OB) care and without any OB providers, such as obstetrician/gynecologists and certified nurse midwives/certified midwives.
Report’s Key Findings on Maternity Care Deserts
As mentioned ...
