Several Latino researchers were among those awarded $7.6 million to prevent cancer this week at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, thanks to the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the Health Science Center, the team behind SaludToday, was awarded a $1.4 million grant. Ramirez will develop bilingual, culturally appropriate social and mobile messages and channels to recruit young adult Latino smokers to sign up for a text-message-based tobacco cessation service. “Smoking is a problem among young adult Latinos in South Texas, but there are no culturally relevant programs that utilize Latinos’ heavy usage of social media and texting to help them quit," Ramirez said. ...
Alma Daneshi cried as she sat in her San Diego-area oncologist’s office, traumatized by past-and-present health battles that continued to endanger her life. She had been through a brain aneurism and open-brain surgery. Then breast cancer. Then breast cancer again, followed by cervical cancer. She had lost her job managing a TGI Fridays restaurant while recovering from the aneurism and taking time off for cancer treatment. She got evicted and worried how she would care for herself and her then 12-year-old daughter. Then she learned she contracted viral meningitis during treatment. Daneshi, sitting beside her oncologist, broke down and wept. But then she got some life-changing advice. “My oncologist let me cry for a bit before she said, ‘Instead of crying, put your anger and ...
Latinos are less likely than non-Latino whites to get screened for colorectal cancer, and are more likely to be diagnosed at harder-to-treat stages. Latino men, specifically, have a 17% lower screening rate than non-Latino men. That’s why Dr. Cynthia Mojica, a researcher at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, is creating a cultural- and language-relevant print-based tool to persuade Latino men to get colorectal cancer screening. Mojica’s efforts are fueled by a new grant from the Health Science Center’s Mentored Research Career Development (KL2) Program in Clinical and Translational Science. “The grant award will give me training, mentorship and research support to help me bring the community into the research ...
How can YOU... ...get sports in public elementary schools? (Page 1) ...find the latest obesity solutions? (Page 2) ...add veggies to a meat market? (Page 3) ...help mobilize Latina moms? (Page 6) Find out in the latest Salud America! E-newsletter. Salud America! The RWJF Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The program aims to unite and increase the number of Latino stakeholders engaged in community change and research on environmental and policy solutions to the epidemic. The network is directed by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Don’t forget to share your stories at our new Salud America! Growing Healthy Change ...
Laredo native Jennifer Garcia-Davalos grew up on the Texas-Mexico border, where the mostly Latino population suffers high rates of obesity, diabetes, and certain cancers. She has always wanted to help reduce those disparities. That’s why Garcia-Davalos, an aspiring physician and a master’s-degree student in public health at The UT School of Public Health, interned at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Over the past year, she helped the IHPR conduct research, mobilize community outreach, and inform, educate, and empower health in Latino communities. “My internship at the IHPR gave me tools needed to succeed in my graduate studies and my future plans in the health and medical fields,” Garcia-Davalos said. “As a ...
Find the latest advances in Latino health—studies on liver cancer rates and colorectal cancer screening, and a promotora’s heartwarming story of survival—in the IHPR Noticias E-newsletter. IHPR Noticias has lots of info on the latest local and national health disparities-related news, resources and events: Story: A Latina Cancer Survivor Makes a Career of Helping Others through Cancer (Pg. 1)
Profile: An Aspiring Doctor, Jennifer Garcia-Davalos, Works for Latino Health (Pg. 2)
Study: South Texas Latinos Have Nation’s Highest Liver Cancer Rates (Pg. 3)
Study: Local Researcher Hopes to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening (Pg. 4)
Story: How to Fix Huge Lack of Hispanics in Clinical Trials (Pg. 6)
Story: Food Trucks—Healthy or Junk Food for Latinos (Pg. ...
Latinos in South Texas have the highest rate of liver cancer in the nation—a rate that continues to rise higher, according to a study from the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. For the study, published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, researchers compared the newest state and federal data to pinpoint current liver cancer rates and trends. They found that Texas Latino male and female incidence rates were 3.1 and 4 times higher than their non-Latino White counterparts, and South Texas Latinos had even higher rates. In addition, liver cancer incidence rates are rising across all groups. “This clearly shows that liver cancer is not only already higher among Latinos in South Texas, but it’s rising, too. We need ...
Good news is happening in the obesity fight: Rates have fallen among low-income kids in several states, rates have plateaued among girls, and targeted efforts in some states have reduced childhood obesity rates. Yet major problems remain. Diseases associated with obesity continue to incur substantial costs and cause widespread human suffering. Substantial disparities in obesity rates are widening among Latinos and other population groups. With a big need for solutions, a new report highlights some of the most innovative programs to prevent and treat obesity. The report, The Current State of Obesity Solutions in the United States, is the result of a 2014 workshop by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Roundtable on Obesity Solutions. The roundtable formed to engage ...
A group of breast cancer survivors gathered in San Antonio on Tuesday, June 17, 2014, to hear a lecture and cooking demonstration about how certain foods may reduce the risk of cancer recurrence — deliciously. The women are participants in the study Rx for Better Breast Health. As a part of the study, this group will attend several lectures by study co-principal investigator Dr. Michael Wargovich of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, combined with cooking demonstrations by Chef Iverson Brownell, who creates innovative culinary recipes that taste great and promote health. Read or watch a WOAI-TV report about the event. To see if you qualify for the study, call 210-562-6579 “We want to teach survivors the importance of a dietary plan full of foods with ...
