Efforts Address Cardiovascular Health Among Filipinos, Hispanic Infant Mortality Rates, Breast Cancer in Black Women, Other Minority Health Issues
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Health Visions Midwest: CDC's Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health program has awarded Health Visions with a five-year, $2 million grant to go toward reducing infant deaths among Hispanics in Lake County, Ind., the Gary Post-Tribune reports. In Lake County, the infant mortality rate among Hispanics is 7.5 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 6.6 deaths per 1,000 among non-Hispanics. Health Visions plans to use the $415,000 annual grant to train community health workers to go into Hispanic neighborhoods of Lake County and educate women on available prenatal and postnatal health care services (Taylor, Gary Post-Tribune, 10/22).
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Minority Healthcare Communications: The National Conference on African-Americans and Cancer was held in Wilmington, Del., this week, the Wilmington News Journal reports (Ratnayake, Wilmington News Journal, 10/23). More than 100 medical and community leaders across the nation discussed the state of cancer among blacks and the progress made in treatment in the last decade (MHC release, 10/19). Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders was the keynote speaker (Wilmington News Journal, 10/23). NPR's "News & Notes" on Thursday included an interview with Mary Hess, founder and president of Minority Healthcare Communications, and Natalie Joseph, an oncologist with Fox Chase Cancer Center (Chideya, "News & Notes," NPR, 10/25).
Audio of the segment is available online.
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New York University: An 11-year NYU study funded by NIH's National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities seeks to assist Filipino-Americans in reducing their risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke by ensuring access to care and disease maintenance, the Asian Journal reports. The first three years of the project, which is part of NYU's Center for the Study of Asian American Health, will be dedicated to data collection, followed by five years of intervention and a final three years of analysis. The NIH grant also helped establish Project AsPIRE (Asian American Partnerships in Research and Empowerment), which is a health initiative that collaborates the efforts of community members and researchers to improve cardiovascular health, particularly hypertension, among Filipino-Americans in New York state and New Jersey (Visaya, Asian Journal, 10/20).
- Spartanburg, S.C.: Gibbs Cancer Center on Monday launched a new initiative that will train and reward local black beauticians for educating their clients about breast cancer and encourage them to receive mammograms, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal reports. The program, called "Beauty and the Breast," is sponsored by Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System and ReGenesis Community Health Center. Under the program, beauticians would receive $20 for each client who receives a mammogram. The beautician would keep $10, and the remainder would be discounted from the client's next hair appointment (Dagostino, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, 10/23).
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Stanford University/American Cancer Society: Stanford's Asian Liver Center and the ACS' California Chinese Unit on Thursday announced an initiative that seeks to increase early liver cancer detection rates in the region's Asian-American population, the Contra Costa Times reports. May Sung, vice president of the ACS' California Division, said language barriers, lack of access to health care and cultural taboos hinder Asian-Americans from obtaining routine screenings for hepatitis B and for liver cancer (Peterson, Contra Costa Times, 10/23).
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