La Noticia De Salud
The Official Newsletter of the Connecticut Center for Eliminating Health Disparities among Latinos* SPRING 2008 - Vol. 3, No. 3
Director’s Column
Editor: Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, PhD Assistant Editor: Shannon Haynes RD, CD-N CEHDL Steering Committe Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, UCONN-Storrs Laurine Bow, Hartford Hospital Donna J Chapman, UCONN-Storrs Jyoti Chhabra, Hartford Hospital Grace Damio, Hispanic Health Council Linda Drake, UCONN-Storrs Maria-Luz Fernández, UCONN-Storrs Amber Hromi-Fiedler, UCONN-Storrs Stacey Brown, UCONN-Farmington Sofia Segura-Pérez, Hispanic Health Council Sonia Vega-López, Hispanic Health Council
Inside this Issue: Thinking About Race and Ethnicity: Implications for Health Disparites
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Affiliates Corner
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Youth on Health! - The Hispanic Health Council’s Innovative Youth Program
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¡Felicidades!
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As we approach the end of CEHDL’s third fiscal year of operations I am happy to report that we continue to make progress in all fronts. On April 19th CEHDL’s Community Core hosted its third annual community forum, this time the theme was depression. The very successful experience from this forum will be summarized at CEHDL’s third annual conference in Storrs on May 20th. The conference will concentrate on mental health and addiction disparities in Connecticut and beyond. CEHDL research activities continue to grow as demonstrated by the CEHDL studies recently presented at the Experimental Biology meetings in San Diego and the peer reviewed CEHDL affiliates publications that have recently been accepted or published in prestigious journals in the field. As the academic year comes to a close, it reminds me that CEHDL continues to touch the lives of many wonderful students. Two of them who are graduating this May, Roberto Cruz and Carolina Bravo, are highlighted in this issue. CEHDL’s community connections core recently implemented and evaluated the wonderful YOH! Program that targeted youth in Hartford. Participants benefited from highly interactive educational experiences to learn more about health disparities and what can be done to address them through research and service. This program is highlighted in the article written by Angela Bermúdez-Millán and Karen D’Angelo from the Hispanic Health Council. The lead article in the last issue of La Noticia de Salud contributed by Margaret Hynes provided a definition of health disparities and made the case for the need to carefully think about how the distributions of these disparities can be measured. That article left us with little doubt that measuring ethnicity/race is essential for advancing the knowledge in the field. However, what do we mean by race/ethnicity? And how can we make the best use out of these data? Thus, I invited Dr. Hynes and her team to contribute with a follow-up article to help us better understand the answers to these fundamental questions. I hope that you enjoy reading this issue and that you have a wonderful and productive summer. Let’s be in touch! Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, PhD Director, CEHDL Professor of Nutrition and Public Health University of Connecticut
*CEHDL is an NIH EXPORT Center funded by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparites (grant #P20MD001765).
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La Noticia de salud
Thinking About Race and Ethnicity: Implications for Health Disparities [Excerpt from: Issue Brief – Race and Ethnicity Matters: Concepts and Challenges of Racial and Ethnic Classifications in Public Health (Fall 2007) - by Alison Stratton, PhD, Ava Nepaul, MA, and Margaret Hynes, PhD, MPH – Connecticut Department of Public Health, The Connecticut Health Disparities Project]
Race, Ethnicity and Health Disparities: An Introduction …Health disparities – those avoidable differences in health among specific population groups that result from cumulative social disadvantages1 – exist for many populations in the United States. …As a result, they may experience reduced healthcare quality and access, and increased rates of disease, disability and death compared to the overall U.S. population. …Differential treatment of people based on ideas of race and ethnicity is a social reality for all Americans,2 and has a large impact on Americans’ health and general well-being. In order to track the health impact of these ideas of race and ethnicity, health departments at all levels need to collect consistent and comprehensive health information using racial and ethnic classification tools. However, race and ethnicity data alone are not sufficient to accurately depict health disparities.2 In fact, social structural factors (such as poverty, low income environments, socioeconomic status and social supports) are equally if not more important as fundamental causes of health disparities.3 ‘…genetic and anthropological research has repeatedly shown, there are more genetic differences within racial categories than there are between racial categories, so these distinctions do not hold up…We are more alike than we are different.’ The Connecticut Health Disparities Project at the Department of Public Health (DPH), in conjunction with other agencies and programs, is taking a new look at health disparities and the collection of “race” and “ethnicity” data. …We seek to address these questions: How have people defined and used the concepts of “race,” and “ethnicity?” How useful or consistent is our current collection of racial and ethnic data in the effort to reduce and eliminate health disparities? What other factors have an impact on people’s health? Below we: 1) introduce the history, theoretical foundations, and uses of the ideas of “race” and “ethnicity” in public health data collection; 2) discuss why they are difficult, yet necessary, concepts to use in studying health in the United States; and 3) stress the need for inclusion of socioeconomic and other demographic factors in the collection and analysis of health data to more fully illuminate health disparities.
What are “Race” and “Ethnicity”, Anyway? “Race” and “ethnicity” are contested and fluid concepts, ideas that reflect the history between and cultural understandings about different peoples.4,5,6,7…In fact, they are both historical products of particular American classification systems created to differentiate people based on changing political, economic, and social values of those in power.4,5,8 … The “race” concept has generally focused on classifying people according to perceived differences in appearance (e.g., skin color), and association of those differences with a geographical region. …Attempts have been made to connect human genetics with ancestral region and appearance, but firm results have been impossible to produce due to “the difficulty of defining a ‘population,’ the clinal nature of variation, and heterogeneity across the genome,” among other considerations.9 “Ethnicity” has generally defined the cultural, behavioral, religious, linguistic, and/or geographical commonalities imputed to people belonging to a particular group, as opposed to genetic inheritance. However, the boundaries of authenticity (that is, who or what “counts” as being a member of an ethnic group) are also very fluid and depend on social, political and historical situations. …The truth is that peoples of the world simply cannot be categorized into four or five genetically distinct groups (e.g., “White,” “Black,” “Asian”).10 As genetic and anthropological research has repeatedly shown, there are more genetic differences within racial categories than there are between racial categories, so these distinctions do not hold up.6,9 We are more alike than we are different. Race and ethnicity are neither scientifically reliable nor valid categories, and assignments to racial or ethnic categories are often based on observer biases, changing situational identities, and historicalpolitical vagaries.4,8,11 In real life, people do not have only one fixed racial or ethnic identity which remains the same over time and space and that can be accurately measured. A further complication inherent in categorization is that people embrace biracial, multiracial, and multi-ethnic identities, which makes the categories even more difficult to sustain, compare, and enumerate. Current racial and ethnic categories for federal data collection are not sensitive to the complex intra-group heterogeneity that exists in the nation.8,12
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‘…The persistence of health inequalities, despite national improvements and specially targeted interventions, must concern people involved with public health. Explanations based on “race” or “ethnicity” as putative biological factors have not been sufficient to explain disparities in health. Research promoting socially contextualized and culturally observant models are urgently needed…’ [Nonetheless], the ideology of race is deeply ingrained in American culture. People acting on these beliefs and practices about race create a social reality for themselves and others. This reality includes the structures, beliefs and practices of health care, medicine and economics that contribute to health disparities for minority populations.13 Public Health and the Use of Race and Ethnicity Classifications …These concepts have been often used as “common sense” explanations for inequalities in health, often without the benefit of full or critical definition in research studies.14… Public health surveillance and monitoring systems use race and ethnicity categories to track inequalities in health and access to health care. However, researchers routinely use race and ethnicity as independent factors associated with health outcomes. Race and ethnicity are thus commonly treated as markers for some unknown and unmeasured biological factors of a given population subgroup, thereby implying that they are immutable characteristics of a population. …While many public health practitioners may agree with a social-contextual approach to studying racial and ethnic health disparities, it has often been expedient to fall back on the habits and research conventions of the biological basis of race and ethnicity in reports and research. Unfortunately, this kind of usage reifies race and ethnicity concepts as biological realities, whether one believes in them or not.8,15,16 The treatment of “race” and “ethnicity” as inherent, biological characteristics of individuals [also] takes attention away from important underlying social and economic determinants of health.13,17,18 …Sociological and anthropological perspectives of medicine and illness have critiqued biological-genetic and behavior-based studies for their seeming removal of individual humans from social and environmental contexts. Social scientists have long called for the return of public health’s focus on social conditions as fundamental causes of disease.3,19 Recently, perspectives focusing on ecosociality,20 the political economy of medical systems,21,22 and the political ecologies of health and illness,23,24 have again attempted to fuse human health
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outcomes with the surrounding social and environmental contexts. Additionally, the use of multilevel statistical models in public health research has allowed for the measurement of both individual-level and neighborhoodlevel effects on health outcomes.25,26,27 Such innovative methodological approaches, computer modeling, and new perspectives on populations and their social, political and geographical environments lead us toward public health’s roots yet again. Why Continue to Collect Race and Ethnicity Data? Given the current and future demographic trends and the persistence of health disparities among state populations, Connecticut’s health care providers, researchers, advocates and policy-makers must rethink health and related services in terms of all state residents. So although there are some theoretical, methodological and practical challenges inherent in collecting race and ethnicity data, public health agencies must continue to do so, and to enhance their capabilities. People’s lived realities include ill health that may result from the ideas and practices related to race and ethnicity classification. We at the state level must use the available tools (i.e., race and ethnicity categories) set by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)12 and other federal agencies to collect consistent and accurate data about the health of all Connecticut residents. Such surveillance also assists in implementation of the Surgeon General’s goal to eliminate health disparities by 2010, compliance with Title VI of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, and justification of funding for health programming.12,28 Alan Goodman explains another very important reason to continue to collect race and ethnicity data: Until there are no racial distinctions in aspects of life such as access to employment and health care, a society that purports to be just, such as our own, needs to track racial differences and the politicaleconomic consequences of a racial system.29 …The Connecticut Health Disparities Project at DPH has recently undertaken an inventory of DPH databases to determine agency needs in the area of sociodemographic data collection.2 Two recommendations are the consistent, agency-wide use of racial and ethnic classifications that meet or exceed the OMB 1997 federal standards, and the collection of other demographic data such as socioeconomic position indicators, primary language, and geographic location markers, which help to contextualize race and ethnicity information.
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Williams, D.R., R. Lavizzo-Mourey and R.C. Warren. 1994. The Concept of Race and Health Status in America. Public Health Reports 109(1):26-41. 14 Williams, D.R. and C. Collins. 1996. U.S. Socioeconomic and Racial Differences in Health: Patterns and Explanations. In Perspectives in Medical Sociology, 2nd Ed. Phil Brown, ed. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. 15 Goodman, A.H. 2000. Why genes don’t count (for racial differences in health). American Journal of Public Health 90(11):1699-1702. 16 Williams, D.R. 1994. The Concept of Race in Health Services Research: 1966 to 1990. Health Services Research 29(3):262-274. 17 Williams, D.R. 1996. Race/Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status: Measurement and Methodological issues. International Journal of Health Services 26(3):483-505. 18 Gee, G.C., M.S. Spencer, J. Chen, and D. Takeuchi. 2007. A Nationwide Study of Discrimination and Chronic Health Conditions Among Asian Americans. American Journal of Public 1 Stratton, A., M. Hynes and A. Nepaul. 2007. Issue Brief: Defining Health 97(7):1275-1282. 19 Health Disparities. Hartford, CT: Connecticut Department of Public McKinlay, J.B. [1974] 1997. A Case for Refocussing Upstream: Health. The Political Economy of Illness. In The Sociology of Health and 2 Nepaul, A., M. Hynes, and A. Stratton. 2007. The Collection of Race, Illness: Critical Perspectives, 5th ed., edited by Peter Conrad, pp. Ethnicity, and Other Sociodemographic Data in Connecticut Department 519-533. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Originally published in of Public Health Databases. Hartford, CT: Connecticut Department of Applying Behavioral Science to Cardiovascular Risk. American Heart Public Health. Association (1974). 3 20 Link, B. and J. Phelan 1995. Social Conditions as Fundamental Kreiger, N. 2001. The Ostrich, the Albatross, and Public Health: Causes of Disease. Journal of Health and Social Behavior (extra issue): An Ecosocial Perspective — Or Why an Explicit Focus on Health 80-94. Consequences of Discrimination and Deprivation is Vital for Good 4 Lee, S. 1993. Racial Classifications in the US Census: 1890-1990. Science and Public Health Practice. Public Health Reports 116:419Ethnic and Racial Studies 16(1):75-94. 423. 5 21 American Anthropological Association. 1997. American Farmer, P. 2005. Pathologies of Power. Berkeley, CA: University of Anthropological Association Response to OMB Directive 15: Race and California Press. 22 Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting. Baer, H., M. Singer, and I. Susser. 2003. Medical Anthropology Electronic document. http://www.aaanet.org/gvt/ombdraft.htm. and the World System: A Critical Perspective, 2nd ed. Westport, CT: Accessed April 17, 2007. Bergin and Garvey. 6 23 American Anthropological Association. 1998. American Baer, H.A. 1996. “Toward a Political Ecology of Health in Medical Anthropological Association Statement on “Race”. Electronic document. Anthropology.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 10(4): 451-454. 24 http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm. Accessed April 17, 2007. Mayer J. 2000. “Geography, ecology and emerging infectious 7 Smedley, B.D., A.Y. Stith, and A.R. Nelson, eds. 2003. Unequal diseases.” Social Science & Medicine 50: 937-952. 25 Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Diez-Roux, A. 1998. Brining Context back into Epidemiology: Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. Variables and Fallacies in Multilevel Analysis. American Journal of 8 Kaplan, J. B. and T. Bennett. 2003. Use of Race and Ethnicity in Public Health 889(2):216-222. 26 Biomedical Publication. Journal of the American Medical Association Subramanian, S.V. 2004. Multilevel Methods, Theory, and 289(20):2709-2716. Analysis. In Encyclopedia of Health & Behavior. Vol. 2., edited by 9 National Human Genome Research Institute: Race, Ethnicity Norman B. Anderson, pp. 602-609. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage and Genetics Working Group. 2005. The Use of Racial, Ethnic and Publications. Ancestral Categories in Human Genetics Research. American Journal of 27 Subramanian, S.V., J.T. Chen, D.H. Rehkopf, P.D. Waterman, Human Genetics 77:519-532. and N. Krieger. 2005. Racial Disparities in Context: A Multilevel 10 In the United States, the Office of Management and Budget and Analysis of Neighborhood Variations in poverty and Excess the Bureau of the Census have determined that for data collection Mortality Among Black Populations in Massachusetts. American purposes, there are five “races” (American Indian or Alaska Native, Journal of Public Health 95(2):260-265. 28 Black or African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2000. Healthy Islander, and White), and only two “ethnicities”: Hispanic or Latino, People 2010. 2nd ed. With Understanding and Improving Health and Non-Hispanic or Latino. “Country of origin,” “ancestry,” and Objectives for Improving Health. 2 vols. Washington, DC: U.S. “heritage,” and “language spoken at home” are some related constructs Government Printing Office, November 2000. 29 that public officials use to gather data about population diversity. Goodman, A.H. 2000. op cit. p. 1701. 11 Williams, P. J. 2007. Colorstruck. The Nation. April 23, 2007. p. 9. 12 Office of Management and Budget. 1997. Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. Federal Register, 62(210):58781-58790, October 30, 1997.
…The persistence of health inequalities, despite national improvements and specially targeted interventions, must concern people involved with public health. Explanations based on “race” or “ethnicity” as putative biological factors have not been sufficient to explain disparities in health. Research promoting socially contextualized and culturally observant models are urgently needed to help explain how health disparities come to be, why and how they have persisted, and how they can be reduced or eliminated. …An expanded view of health practices and policies will call for a critical review of what the concepts of “race” and “ethnicity” mean – and have meant – to people, how these concepts have been used, and how we can transcend them.
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Affiliates Corner Recent Peer Reviewed Journal Articles • Pérez-Escamilla, R., Hromi-Fiedler, A., Vega-Lopez, S., Bermúdez-Millán, A., Segura-Pérez, S. Impact of peer nutrition education on dietary behaviors and health outcomes among Latinos: A systematic literature review. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. (In Press). • Fitzgerald N, Segura-Pérez S, Damio G, Pérez-Escamilla R. Nutrition knowledge, food label use, and food intake patterns among Latinas with and without type 2 diabetes. J American Dietetic Association. (In Press). • Dharod JM, Pérez-Escamilla R, Paciello S, Bermúdez-Millán A, Venkitanarayanan K, Damio G. Comparison between self-reported and observed food handling behaviors among Latinas. J Food Prot. 2007;70:1927-32. • Dharod JM, Pérez-Escamilla R, Paciello S, Bermúdez-Millán A, Venkitanarayanan K, and Damio G. Critical control points for home prepared ‘chicken and salad” in Puerto Rican households. Food Protection Trends. 2007;27;1-9. • Kurz B and Rozas LW. The concept of race in research: using composite variables. Ethnicity and Disease. 2007;17:560-7. • Milan S, Snow S, Belay S (CEHDL graduate fellowship recipient). The context of preschool children’s sleep: Racial/ethnic differences in sleep locations, routines, and concerns. J of Family Psychology 2007;21:20-28. 2008 Experimental Biology Meetings Presentations (Abstracted) • Pérez-Escamilla R, Vega-López S, Segura-Pérez S, Damio G, Fernandez M, Calle M, Samuel GK, Chhabra J and D’Agostino D. Impact of diabetes peer counseling on glycosylated hemoglobin among Latinos enrolled in the DIALBEST Trial: preliminary results. • Vega-López S, Calle MC, Fernandez ML, Chhabra J, D’Agostino D, Samuel GK, Segura-Pérez S, Damio G, and Pérez-Escamilla R. Three-month effect of diabetes peer counseling on plasma lipids of Latinos enrolled in the DIALBEST trial: preliminary findings. CEHDL at the 2008 Experimental Biology meetings • Chhabra J, Vega-López S, Calle MC, Putnik P, Fernandez ML, in San Diego. From left to right, Drs. Angela D’Agostino D, Damio G, and Pérez-Escamilla R. Relationship Bermúdez-Millán, Sonia Vega-López, Rafael Pérezbetween energy intake and weight in Latino adults with type 2 Escamilla, Amber Hromi-Fiedler, Donna Chapman. diabetes, preliminary results: DIALBEST trial. • Calle MC, Vega-López S, Pérez-Escamilla R, Chhabra J, D’Agostino D, Damio G, and Fernandez M. Dietary habits and cardiovascular disease risk factors in Hispanics with type 2 diabetes mellitus enrolled in the DIALBEST trial: preliminary results. • Hromi-Fiedler A, Bermúdez-Millán A, Chapman D, Segura-Pérez S, Damio G, Melgar-Quiñonez H, and PérezEscamilla R. Household food security status before pregnancy as a risk factor for delivering a low birth weight infant. • Hromi-Fiedler A, Bermúdez-Millán A, Chapman D, Segura-Pérez S, Damio G, Melgar-Quiñonez H, and PérezEscamilla R. A U-shaped relationship exists between food insecurity and excessive gestational weight gain among low-income Latinas. • Bermúdez-Millán A, Hromi-Fiedler A, Damio G, Segura-Pérez S, and Pérez-Escamilla R. Meal composition and meal skipping behaviors differ between low-income Puerto Ricans and non-Puerto Rican pregnant Latinas. • Bermúdez-Millán A, Hromi-Fiedler A, Damio G, Segura-Pérez S, and Pérez-Escamilla R. Food group intake patterns differ between low-income Puerto Ricans and non-Puerto Rican pregnant Latinas. • Chapman D, Bermúdez-Millán A, Wetzel K, Damio G, Kyer N, Young S, and Pérez-Escamilla R. Breastfeeding education and support trial for obese women.
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La Noticia de salud
Youth on Health! - The Hispanic Health Council’s Innovative Youth Program Angela Bermúdez-Millán and Karen D’Angelo Hispanic Health Council In early 2008, CEHDL’s Community Core, based at the YOH!’s evaluation plan is designed to measure changes Hispanic Health Council (HHC), partnered with HHC’s in knowledge, as well as changes in confidence and youth program to launch a new, innovative project titled interest levels in the areas of health research, education, “Youth on Health! (YOH!).” YOH! offers Hartford’s low clinical service, and advocacy. Changes in self-reported income, urban youth direct experience in health disparity health behavior and participant satisfaction are also research, peer education, and advocacy, and provides measured. The evaluation tools consist of pre and post exposure to diverse careers in healthcare and public health. test assessments of participant knowledge, interest, and By engaging youth in a series of participatory, educational confidence, as well as satisfaction surveys which provide opportunities, YOH! illustrates the impact health qualitative participant feedback. CEHDL administers all disparities have on participants, their families, and the evaluation tools, collects and inputs all data, and provides community, and demonstrates solutions at the individual, statistical data analysis in addition to reports related to the community and systemic level. The YOH! curriculum project’s results. includes the following components: • educational presentations led by guest instructors on the topics of health disparities, health research, HIV prevention, nutrition, exercise, the risks of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, and skin protection; • various art activities designed to engage youth in exploration of the emotional dimension of their experiences; • instruction in self care techniques and exposure to wellness activities, such as yoga, stress reduction, and massage therapy; • and field trips designed to connect classroom learning to the outside world, including as a compliment to classroom instruction on risk reduction, a field trip to the Bodies Revealed exhibition at Hartford’s XL Center, and as a compliment to classroom presentations on various health careers and as a means of familiarizing participants with a university’s cultural resources, a visit to the University of Connecticut, and its African American Cultural Center, and Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center. Throughout the development and implementation of this distinctive youth project, CEHDL has provided significant leadership and technical support. CEHDL developed the conceptual framework for the project, trained HHC’s youth program staff regarding YOH!’s unique approach to empowering and educating low-income youth, led the process of developing the project’s curriculum, and delivered several of the educational sessions. Finally, CEHDL developed the program’s rigorous evaluation plan, including all tools and instruments, and is coordinating its implementation.
‘YOH!’s evaluation plan is designed to measure changes in knowledge, as well as changes in confidence and interest levels in the areas of health research, education, clinical service, and advocacy.’ YOH! meets biweekly for a total of 35 sessions that take place at HHC or at field trip sites. The targeted group size was 15 participants. At baseline, a total of 34 youth had been recruited from a variety of community locations. Their mean age was 15.25 years. Ethnicity was comprised of 76.5% Hispanics, 17.6% AfricanAmericans, and 5.9% “other.” Fifty percent were female and fifty percent were male. A total of 18 youth regularly participate in the program. To date, the following educational sessions have been covered: health disparities, interviewing techniques, nutrition and exercise, and the risks of tobacco and alcohol use. Preliminary findings of evaluation data include the following:
Participants creating a healthy, whole meal salad with the help of Hispanic Health Council Family Nutrition Staff.
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• In the pretest, 92.9% of participants reported that hey had not heard the term health disparities. Post test results showed that almost half understood the concept after the educational session on health disparities. On the post test, one youth described health disparities as “when people don’t have money to support their health or they are really discriminated by.” • Prior to the educational session on health research, 82% of participants did not know the difference between quantitative and qualitative research methods and 60% could not identify the difference between open and closed-ended questions. Post-test results showed that 64% could accurately distinguish the different research methods and 100% were able to correctly differentiate open versus closed-ended questions. • After the educational session on nutrition, more participants understood that there were 5 food groups on “My Pyramid,” as evidenced by the number of correct answers on the post-test as compared with the pre-test. This demonstrates an increase in knowledge (p=.06). Additionally, at baseline, only 12.5% of the youth recognized that it is recommended that youth exercise at least one hour each day. After the educational session on exercise, this percentage jumped to 92.3% of participants. • In the pretest, only 46% of participants correctly reported the impact smoking has on youth and only 8% accurately reported that alcoholism cannot be
cured. Whereas on the post-test, these percentages increased to 69%, and 93% respectively. On the post test, one youth described health disparities as “when people don’t have money to support their health or they are really discriminated by.” These analyses give a preliminary indication that youth are learning from the program. Further analyses will be conducted to measure the pre and post knowledge of the individual participants to clarify the aggregated group data provided in this article. If final results demonstrate evidence of learning, and increase in interest and/or confidence, CEHDL will pursue the opportunity to replicate the program on a larger scale, and based on results, disseminate the YOH! model as a best practice of health disparity education and empowerment for low-income, urban youth.
“Youth creating an art project as part of the YOH! session on health research.”
¡Felicidades! CEHDL undergraduate research intern and student affiliate Roberto Cruz, is being featured in the latest edition of UConn Magazine. The story of Roberto highlights the very successful academic outcomes that students can have when the commitment and institutional resources are in place. In this instance, Roberto’s academic life has been deeply touched at UConn by his BGS academic advisor at Continuing Studies (Susan Graham-Handley), the Institute of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies (minority health class and independent study under Professor Marysol Asencio’s mentorship), and CEHDL. Indeed, Roberto is not only graduating with honors in May but he has also been asked to be the Continuing Studies Commencement Ceremony speaker on May 11. And Roberto has been accepted into UConn’s MPH program with full funding from CEHDL. His MPH thesis will focus on the role of community health workers at addressing type 2 diabetes self-management challenges faced by Latinos living in Hartford. You can find the story about Roberto at http://uconnmagazine.uconn.edu/sprg2008/spotlight.html continued on back page…
Connecticut Center for Eliminating Health Disparities among Latinos 524028 University of Connecticut Department of Nutritional Sciences Roy E. Jones Building, UNIT 4017 3624 Horsebarn Road Ext. Storrs, CT 06269-4017 Phone: (860) 486-3635 Email:
[email protected]
CEHDL
CEHDL’s mission is to contribute to the elimination of health disparities among Latino(a)s through the formation of human resources, community-based research, and culturally appropriate outreach/extension.
We’re on the web! Go to www.cehdl.uconn.edu
¡Felicidades! After considering several offers form very prestigious Schools of Public Health, CEHDL student affiliate Carolina Bravo has accepted to join Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health MPH program. Carolina is an undergraduate Honor’s student graduating with a major in nutritional sciences in May. Carolina worked for the Husky Reads nutrition program under the mentorship of Michelle Pierce, and was mentored by Richard Clark during her nutritional sciences honors program. Dr. Pérez-Escamilla became her honor’s thesis advisor last Fall. Her thesis work was facilitated by the BESTOW CEHDL-Donaghue Foundation-CDC trial with strong field work and statistical analysis mentorship from Angela BermudezMillan, CEHDL Community Connections Core Coordinator based at The Hispanic Health Council. Her exploratory work concentrated on understanding the dietary intake and weight loss patterns among overweight Latina women during the postpartum period and how this is affected by their infant feeding choices. During her studies at UConn, Carolina also benefited quite a bit from the mentorship of IPRLS/ Family Studies Professor Marysol Asencio, a Columbia Mailman School of Public Health alumni, who strongly motivated Carolina to work in the area of minority health. CEHDL is very proud of Carolina and her accomplishments and its looking forward to all her continuing successes.
