Rebecca T. Adeigbe

Incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in Texas Latinos, 1995-2010: an update.

Background A previous study showed Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) rates to be higher among Latinos in Texas and highest among South Texas Latinos compared to other non-Hispanic whites (NHW) and other Latinos in the United States (U.S.). We used more recent data to assess trends in HCC among Texas Latinos and to reassess the elevated HCC incidence rate in Texas Latinos. Methods We used data from the U.S. SEER Program and the Texas Cancer Registry to calculate annual and 3-year moving average age-specific and age-adjusted HCC incidence rates, annual percent changes (APCs), and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals for Latinos and NHW in the U.S., Texas and South Texas. Results Texas Latino male and female incidence rates were 3.1 and 4.0 times higher than their NHW counterparts in SEER regions. Latino males and females in South Texas had the highest rates of HCC incidence overall; rate ratios were 3.6 and 4.2 among South Texas Latino males and females compared to SEER NHW counterparts. There are statistically significant increases in HCC incidence rates in all groups (Texas and South Texas Latinos and NHW groups) and across all age groups. The elevated HCC rates in Texas Latinos are consistent over the 1995–2010 period. Conclusions The incidence of HCC among Latinos in South Texas remains higher than elsewhere in the U.S. and warrants closer investigation of potential risk factors related to prevailing conditions unique to the population including higher obesity and diabetes rates, environmental, cultural and socioeconomic factors and possibly genetic predisposition.

Food and Beverage Marketing to Latinos A Systematic Literature Review

Obesity rates among U.S. adults and children have increased over the past two decades and, although signs of stabilization and decline among certain age groups and geographies are being reported, the prevalence of obesity among Latino adults and children remain high. The Latino population is growing in parallel to these obesity rates and marketers realize they cannot ignore this growing, high-spending, media-consuming segment. Studies examining food and beverage marketing strategies tend to discuss minority groups in general but do not account for racial and ethnic differences, reducing our ability to explain existing inequities. This article aimed to identify the food and beverage marketing strategies used to influence food environments for Latinos versus non-Latinos. A systematic literature review and analysis, guided by an established marketing conceptual framework, determined that the food and beverage marketing environment for Latinos is less likely to promote healthy eating and more likely to encourage consumption of low-nutrient, calorie-dense foods and beverages. This analysis also determined that Latinos’ food environment and the placement of food retail stores appears to influence their body mass index; however, placement of these stores cannot be generalized, as geographical differences exist. While food and beverage marketing is only one of many sources of influence on food and beverage consumption, these findings reinforce the notion that Latinos are at a disadvantage when it comes to exposure of healthy lifestyle messaging and health-promoting food environments.

Salud America! A National Research Network to Build the Field and Evidence to Prevent Latino Childhood Obesity

Foodandbeveragecompa-nies have come under scrutiny for marketing strategiesused to target youth to promote unhealthy food items.The use of popular licensed characters for product pro-motion, television advertisement, and marketing usingdigital and social media channels is a strategy used tocreate brand recognition and loyalty among youth.

Latino Youth and Obesity: Communication/Media Influence on Marketing

Increasing childhood obesity rates have led many public health researchers, child health advocates, and policy makers to carefully examine the strategies food and beverage companies use to target children (Larson & Story, 2008; Nestle, 2006).

Éxito!: Making an Impact in Training Latinos for Doctorates and Cancer Research

Latinos lag behind other racial/ethnic groups in pursuit of master’s and doctoral degrees in public health and the health sciences. Éxito! is modeled after the Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research (MTPCCR), which found that Latino participants went on to doctoral programs at a lower rate (12%) than African American (36%) and Asian participants (33%). Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training is designed to increase the number of Latinos who pursue doctoral degrees and careers in cancer health disparity (CHD) research. The program has three components: recruitment with partnering universities and associations, an ethnically tailored intensive 5-day summer institute (SI), and 6-month paid internships offered on a competitive basis. Up to 20 master’s level students/master’s level health professionals are selected annually to participate in the SI; faculty are leaders in Latino CHD research. Funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) from 2011 to 2015, Éxito! recruited 101 summer institute participants and awarded 21 internships. Analyses of pre- and post-institute surveys showed significant increases in confidence to apply to a doctoral program and academic self-efficacy among summer institute participants, and significantly increased research skills among interns. Forty-three percent of Éxito! program alumni applied to a doctoral program (our main outcome) and 29.7% were currently enrolled. This is nearly double the rate for MTPCCR Latino participants (17%) for the corresponding time period. Éxito! is a model pipeline program for encouragement of Latinos on to doctoral programs (e.g., PhD and DrPH) with the potential to increase the pool of cancer health disparity researchers.

SaludToday: Curating Latino health information for a new generation

Abstract Background: The Internet has quickly become a primary source and channel for distributing a multitude of health messages. To ensure health messages are effective and well-received, health communication researchers are constantly seeking new communication strategies to improve health literacy. One of the challenges associated with the widespread availability of online information is a saturated environment with many different messages. To build a trustworthy relationship with consumers, health communicators and other professionals must successfully filter the massive amounts of health information and create succinct and easily consumable health messages. Methods: Curation is an emerging strategy that uses a systematic and refined process to create such messages and prevent mixed messaging and information overload. Through this process information is collected, developed, stored, and shared. Results: The purpose of this article is to: (1) explain online content curation; (2) describe the e-health content curation model; (3) discuss the process of e-health content curation as it applies to a national Latino health campaign called SaludToday. This online content curation model consists of three primary steps: collect–craft–connect, which cohesively provide a systematic approach to identifying, collecting, generating, and disseminating health messages online. Conclusion: With massive amounts of content created across the Internet every minute, health content curation can play a vital role in bringing a particular audience to targeted, relevant and engaging content that has the potential to affect peoples knowledge of health issues, attention to health issues, and capacity to make healthy changes.

Advocacy, Efficacy, and Engagement in an Online Network for Latino Childhood Obesity Prevention

Salud America! is a national network created to engage Latino researchers, health professionals and community leaders in actions to reduce Latino childhood obesity. An online survey of 148 Salud America! network members investigated relationships between (1) their levels of engagement with the network, (2) self- and collective-efficacy, and (3) behavioral intentions to engage in advocacy for policies that can help reduce Latino childhood obesity. Analyses of these data found that higher levels of Salud America! engagement was associated with collective-advocacy efficacy—greater confidence in organized group advocacy as a way of advancing policies to reduce Latino childhood obesity. A multiple regression analysis found that this sense of collective-efficacy moderately predicted intentions to engage in advocacy behaviors. Salud America! engagement levels were less strongly associated with members’ confidence in their personal ability to be an effective advocate, yet this sense of self-efficacy was a very strong predictor of a behavioral intention to advocate. Based on these findings, new online applications aimed at increasing self- and collective-efficacy through peer modeling are being developed for Salud America! in order to help individuals interested in Latino childhood obesity prevention to connect with each other and with opportunities for concerted local actions in their communities.