Experiences Using Health Care among Latinas in the Capital Region of New York State

This report presents data from a quantitative study carried out in 2007 among Latino women living in Albany, Schenectady, Montgomery, and Rensselaer Counties. A community-based convenience sampling strategy was employed because of the difficulty in identifying a sample of Latinas in the Capital District region. Latinos make up a much smaller proportion, albeit growing proportion, of the population in the Capital Region compared to New York City. Unlike major cities or areas of high concentration of Latinos, there are no large regions or neighborhoods in the Capital Region known to have a concentration of Latinos. This study’s sample was recruited through churches, Latino organizations, and work sites known to be frequented by Latino women. Although this is not a representative sample, this report will present an up-to-date and more comprehensive look at the demographics of Latino women in the Capital Region, where there is a growing Latino population

Latinas in Small Cities in Upstate New York: Health and Mental Health Issues

The study presented in this report explored the health and mental health of Latinas in small cities in upstate New York focusing on specific health and mental health indicators. The specific research questions addressed by this study were:1. What are some of the key health issues among Latinas in small cities?2. What are some of the most important mental health issues among Latinas in small cities? The study presented in this report offers legislators, public agencies, community organizations, and the media some baseline, preliminary information for strategic discussions of the health and mental health needs of Latinas in small cities in Upstate New York. Indeed, it underscores the urgent need to address the historically invisible status of Latinas in the health policy arena

Empowering Women in Underserved Communities: Using CBPR Approaches to Improve Health Literacy and Community Capacity

Moderator: Elena Carbone, DrPH RD, LDN, Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition, UMass Amherst Presenters: Jennifer Manganello, MPH, PhD Janine M. Jurkowski, MPH, PhD Elena T. Carbone, DrPH, RD, LDN Session Description Promoting health literacy empowers individuals and communities to better navigate the health care system and health information environment, and allows for informed decision making for choices and actions that affect health. Empowerment Theory and health literacy are inherent in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) with low-income and disadvantaged populations. In order for representatives to be engaged as equal participants in the research process, research and health capacity building need to occur. This breakout session will be presented in three parts. The first presentation will provide an overview and introduce how Empowerment Theory and health literacy can be used to build the capacity of community representatives and patient stakeholders. The other two presentations will highlight CBPR research projects currently underway or planned. What is Health Literacy? Presenter: Jennifer Manganello Health literacy refers to a person’s ability to obtain and understand health information and navigate the health system, as well as the health care environment itself. Definitions of health literacy will be discussed, along with how health literacy is relevant at each of the levels of the socio-ecological model (i.e., individual vs. community). We will provide a brief overview about health literacy research conducted in community and clinical settings. This presentation will also discuss how health literacy is related to empowerment. Communities for Health Living (CHL): A CBPR Childhood Obesity Prevention Intervention Guided by Empowerment Theory Presenter: Janine M. Jurkowski CHL is an intervention research project that uses a parent-centered community-based participatory research (CBPR) in an RCT scale up of a childhood obesity prevention intervention guided by Empowerment Theory. CHL recognizes parents as family experts, engages them as co-researchers and embeds the resulting empowerment-focused intervention into Head Start, a national system of care reaching over one million low-income families. Building on a successful pilot assessment CHL researchers are collaborating with Boston/Somerville/Cambridge Head Start serving over 2000 children to expand the CBPR approach by engaging parents, community representatives and Head Start staff to adapt CHL to a new, more diverse setting. CHL is rigorously testing its efficacy to prevent obesity in children. To ensure the timely translation of this work this study is a practical behavioral trial that maintains a rigorous assessment of program efficacy. Primary innovations of this study are its explicit incorporation of Empowerment Theory into its participatory approach and intervention, which deviates from the traditional model of nutrition education to address broader family realities. Mpower: Empowering Mothers for Health Presenter: Elena T. Carbone This project responds to the WUN Shanghai Declaration and the United Nations General Assembly call to promote health literacy in parents and empower women as a global strategy to reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Because many NCDs originate in early development and from health disparities, the maternal health literacy of women in poverty is especially vital. Maternal health literacy refers to the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of mothers to gain access to, understand, and use information in ways that promote and maintain their health and that of their children. Despite its importance, preliminary results of two scoping reviews indicate that few studies have examined maternal health literacy; fewer still have focused on skill development or empowerment of women in poverty. This project is designed to develop a long-term and sustainable research plan to fill these gaps and is part of a five-stage approach to develop a universal research strategy to promote health literacy in parents and empower women globally. Moreover, this project introduces an innovative community-based participatory method to the field of health literacy; and focuses on critical health literacy skills, empowerment, and health literacy for health protection and promotion -- all of which have been largely ignored

Engaging Low-Income Parents in Childhood Obesity Prevention from Start to Finish: A Case Study

Prevention of childhood obesity is a national priority. Parents influence young children’s healthy lifestyles, so it is paradoxical that obesity interventions focus primarily on children. Evidence and theory suggest that including parents in interventions offers promise for effective childhood obesity prevention. This case study engaged parents’ as co-researchers in the design, implementation and evaluation of an intervention for low-income families with a child enrolled in Head Start. Parent engagement mechanisms include: (1) targeted partnership development (2) operationalizing a Community Advisory Board (CAB) that was the key decision making body; (3) a majority of CAB members were parents who were positioned as experts, and (4) addressing structural barriers to parent participation. Lessons learned are provided for future research, and practice

Cardiovascular disease behaviors among Latinas, non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic white women.

Cardiovascular disease behaviors among Latinas, non-Hispanic black and non-Hispanic white women

There Is More to Transparency Than Meets the Eye: The Impact of Mandatory Disclosure Laws Aimed at Promoting Breastfeeding

Requiring hospitals to inform patients of clinical best practices and to disclose performance data are two common regulatory strategies for improving healthcare. Proponents of such mandatory disclosure laws - sometimes referred to as targeted transparency - argue that they increase patient awareness and thereby create reputational incentives for hospitals to improve their performance. Evaluation of targeted transparency typically focuses on patient responses to information and changes in hospital behavior based on reputational concerns. The standard account, however, overlooks other important ways targeted transparency can influence hospital performance. This article presents a case study of disclosure laws designed to promote breastfeeding to illustrate how targeted transparency can influence hospitals independently of its effects on patients\u27 choice of provider or hospitals\u27 fear of losing business. We found that mandatory disclosure laws emboldened state regulators to take a more aggressive approach to enforcement of hospital regulations, empowered nurse managers to advocate more effectively within hospitals for changes in hospital policies, and enabled nurse managers to implement verifiable performance goals for clinical staff under their supervision. These findings suggest that the study of mandatory disclosure more generally - in areas such as financial regulation, environmental protection, food labeling, and workplace safety - would benefit by analyzing not only its influence on public awareness and its reputational effects but also how regulators use transparency laws and how managers within regulated entities employ the information that the laws provide