Check out this great video story from a Latino who quit smoking. The video is from Manantial de Salud, a federally funded Latino grassroots health network sponsored by the Latino Healthcare Forum in the Dove Springs neighborhood in Austin, ...
Read MoreCheck out the American Lung Association's annual Helping Smokers Quit: Tobacco Cessation Coverage report. The new report documents the coverage of quit smoking programs and treatments available in each state and from the federal government and identifies the most and least quit-friendly states in the country. Additionally, the report documents significant advances in the ongoing federal health care overhaul and other federal policies that will offer millions help in ending their deadly tobacco addiction. It also recognizes states that are making progress in this life-and-death effort and calls on policymakers at all levels to make quit-smoking services an urgent priority. Read the full report ...
Read MoreThe U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Healthcare 411 audio news source provides practical health care information, research findings, and data in English and Spanish to help consumers, health providers, health insurers, researchers, and policymakers make informed decisions about health care issues. The site offers some brand-new Spanish-language podcasts on these topics: Consejos para dejar de fumar: Provides suggestions to help individuals break their smoking habit. Terapias para niños con trastornos del espectro autista: Discusses treatment options for children with autism Toma las riendas: Discusses how patients can increase their awareness about common healthcare issues Disparidades en el uso de medicamentos para el asma: Discusses the disparities of ...
Read MoreThe latest guidelines and info for cancer screening, treatment and prevention are right there when you need them in the form of three new apps for the iPhone and/or iPad. "HPVsearch" allows users to look up facts, vaccines and patient FAQs. With "CanSearch," find the recommended screening guidelines for the top 25 cancers, including their risk factors, nutrition and chemoprevention stats, and imaging tests. With "CanQuit," refer to guidelines, info, and resources to help patients quit smoking. These free apps, from the Texas Medical Association's Physician Oncology Education Program, are available here from your iPhone or ...
Read MoreAn FDA panel recently released a report that menthol cigarettes are harmful and that their removal "from the marketplace would benefit public health in the United States," the Los Angeles Times reports. Menthol is the flavoring used in about 30% of U.S. cigarettes. The National Latino Tobacco Control Network (NLTCN) welcomes this recommendation to the FDA and urges the FDA to ban the use of menthol in cigarettes and other tobacco products. By withdrawing this product from the market, the FDA would be protecting the lives of people of color, NLTCN argues. More than 82% of the African American smokers use mentholated cigarettes, as well as 45% of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, 35% of multiracial populations, 37% Latino women, and 32% of Asian Americans. "For our ...
Read MoreRave reviews are coming in for a visually stunning booklet featuring minority teens' anti-smoking photos from a project for which eight San Antonio high-school students took photos and wrote captions to visually describe tobacco problems in their neighborhoods to policy-makers. "This is a wonderful example of how to invigorate public health messaging and make it 'sing' within one of your priority populations. The involvement of youth in the planning and execution of the project in a meaningful way is something that should be replicated throughout other areas of the State. Congratulations to...all the 'gang' at the UT Health Science Center for working with the San Antonio Tobacco Prevention and Control Coalition to carry it out!" said Gail Sneden, a project director of Applied Research ...
Read MoreSAN ANTONIO—Memorial High School student Victor Hernandez (at right) points to his photograph of a smoked cigarette butt lodged in the crack of a sidewalk. The photo caption starts: “Cigarettes get between everything.” “People might dream to be a doctor, lawyer – then cigarettes get introduced,” Victor said of the photo’s meaning. “With every cigarette it gets harder and harder to quit, you get closer to death. Your original dream goes away.” Victor is one of eight students from Edgewood Independent School District’s Kennedy and Memorial high schools who recently partook in a “Photovoice Smoke-Free” project, where students took photos and wrote captions to visually describe the problem of tobacco to policy- and decision-makers. Read more about the students and ...
Read MoreNeed inspiration or help finding the way to quit smoking? There is good news: The Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR), the team behind SaludToday, has developed ¡Buena Vida! A Guide to Help You Quit Smoking. The booklet offers Latinos info, tools and tips for quitting smoking, and tells the stories of five Latinos who have quit, like Estefanía Villareal (pictured at right). Read the booklet in English. Read the booklet in Spanish. Find out more about the IHPR's materials to help Latinos quit ...
Read MoreLatino men who are more adapted to U.S. culture are more likely to quit smoking than their less-acculturated counterparts, according to research by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center released Dec. 3, 2009, from the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. The study of 271 Latino smokers who called a Spanish-language smoking cessation quitline examined the influence of gender and indicators of acculturation on the ability to quit smoking. Men who had been in the U.S. for up to five years had about 20 percent smoking abstinence rate at three months after the quitline program. But more than 35 percent of men who had been in the U.S. for 23-76 years abstained. Those who preferred to view news and entertainment mainly or exclusively in English ...
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