January is Glaucoma Awareness Month, and the HHS Office of Minority Health (OMH) joins the National Eye Institute (NEI) to spread the word about how to identify glaucoma early — and how people with glaucoma can protect their vision.
Glaucoma often has no warning signs. It has no symptoms and causes no pain, but it can be detected early through a comprehensive dilated eye exam.
According to the NEI, anyone can get glaucoma, but those at higher risk include:
- Everyone over age 60, particularly Hispanics/Latinos
- African Americans over age 40
- People with a family history of glaucoma
Make a New Year’s resolution to take care of your eye health by getting a dilated eye exam! You may be eligible to have most of the cost of an eye exam paid for by Medicare. Visit NEI’s National Eye Health Education Program website to find fact sheets, infographics, social media graphics, videos and webinars, and the Talk With Your Doctor About Glaucoma guide, also available in Spanish.
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January 15 - 21 is National Healthy Weight Week, a time to encourage everyone to focus on healthy eating, physical activity, optimal sleep, and stress reduction to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. According to the CDC, obesity affects more than 40 percent of Americans, placing them at higher risk for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer.
Obesity affects some groups more than others. In 2022, Black/African American adults had the highest prevalence of obesity (43.7%), followed by American Indian/Alaska Native adults (37.8%) and Hispanic/Latino adults (36.5%). Take charge of your weight and health with the following resources:
- The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)’s Changing Your Habits for Better Health, also available in Spanish, outlines four stages you may go through when changing health habits such as eating and physical activity.
- NIDDK’s Staying Active at Any Size, also available in Spanish, provides guidelines and tips for people who are overweight or have been inactive for a long time.
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) MyPlate website and Start Simple with MyPlate app include healthy eating tips organized by food groups and simple recipes, such as meals tailored for Asian, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Middle Eastern communities.
- The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) Move Your Way Healthy Eating Integration Resources, also available in Spanish, includes six stories that speak to how different individuals integrate physical activity and healthy eating into their daily lives.
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Reproductive health care, including access to birth control, is an essential part of health and well-being. Contraceptive use among females aged 15–49 years is statistically more common among White females (67%) compared with Black females (59.9%). Health disparities for people of color are disproportionately higher than their white counterparts by most measures of reproductive health, including rates of unintended pregnancy, the prevalence of HIV and STDs, as well as maternal and infant mortality rates.
HHS is committed to providing accurate and up-to-date information and resources about access to and coverage of reproductive health care. The Biden-Harris Administration remains committed to protecting reproductive rights, ensuring women can make their own decisions about their own bodies.
The Office of Population Affairs (OPA) funds more than 3,200 family planning clinics that deliver high-quality reproductive health care across the nation. These public and private nonprofit health and community-based clinics play a critical role in ensuring access to a broad range of family planning services, including contraceptive education, counseling, and methods. These confidential services are free or low-cost and available to anyone who needs them.
Visit ReproductiveRights.gov to learn more about your right to access care and have it covered by your insurance, where to go if you don’t have coverage, and find a Title X family planning clinic near you.
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The White House has released the first ever U.S. Playbook to Address Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) people fared worse across most measures of SDOH compared to their White counterparts. Social determinants of health prevent many people of racial/ethnic minority groups from having fair opportunities for economic, physical, and emotional health. The Playbook lays out an initial set of structural actions agencies are taking to support equitable health outcomes across communities. It also highlights the need for well-coordinated systems of health and social care to better address social needs that can impact health.
The Playbook was released alongside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Call to Action and Medicaid and CHIP’s Framework. The Call to Action asks partners across health care, social care, public and environmental health, government, and health information technology organizations to take shared and individual actions to promote system transformation and collaboration.
Together we can achieve a future in which everyone, regardless of social circumstances, has access to aligned, high-quality, person-centered health and social care systems that can improve health and well-being.
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January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month. To bring awareness to this disease, the OMH Knowledge Center is featuring a collection of journal articles and documents focused on disparities in cervical screening and vaccination. Topics include cervical cancer screening disparities by insurance status, racial/ethnic groups, and immigrant status.
You can access this collection through the OMH Knowledge Center online catalog.
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