California Study Links Obesity and Food Environment

California researchers this week released a report suggesting that obesity and diabetes are more prevalent in neighborhoods with a high ratio of fast food restaurants and convenience stores to grocery stores and produce vendors.  You can see the study here and read a Los Angeles times story here (subscription required).

The authors call on policymakers to undertake small-scale retail innovations, such as adding mobile produce vendors and farmers’ markets; leverage recent changes to the federal Women, Infants and Children food package to expand the number of authorized vendors and increase capacity at existing vendors; and require restaurant menu nutrition labeling to help consumers make more informed meal choices. In addition, the authors recommend that community planners address the food environment, in part through zoning decisions designed to limit fast food restaurants in already oversaturated neighborhoods.

A smaller, but illustrative, survey of convenience stores in the southwest quadrant of Rochester conducted by SWAN and a University of Rochester student last summer revealed that lack of healthy food options for residents.

Locally, the there is an effort beginning in Monroe County to develop an agenda for policy changes that can prevent childhood obesity. This effort consists of a policy team of community leaders who represent schools, parent groups, restaurants, recreation organizations, etc.  Lead by the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency in partnership with URMC’s Center for Community Health and Department of Pediatrics, and the Children’s Agenda, the effort is considering and selecting most promising policy changes for our community.

Additionally, several community organizations have – over the last couple of years – been taking steps to bring healthier food options to city residents.  This includes new farmer’s markets, produce stands, and projects in cooperation with FoodLink and other organizations.

We will have more to report on these projects as they unfold.

Public Health Grand Rounds: Breaking the Cycle of Violence

The next installment of the Public Health Grand Rounds (Act Locally/Act Globally, Partnering for Healthier Communities) this Friday will focus on violence.  The forums are jointly sponsored by the Center for Community Health and the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine.

The topic of this week’s discussion is “Breaking the Cycle of Violence: A Hospital and Community Program for Victims of Violence.”

Large and small communities across the United States continue to struggle with the epidemic of violence. The experience in Rochester is no different. In fact, Rochester has had one of the highest per capita murder rates in NY State during the past decade. There is an increasing realization of the need for communities to respond to the violence in a coordinated manner. Hospitals can and should play a vital role in this response by establishing crucial community linkages to address the needs of injured victims of violence. Strong Memorial Hospital has partnered with local community service providers in an effort help stop the violence.

The event is Friday, May 2, 2008 from 12:00 to 1:00 PM in the Upper Adolph Auditorium (Room 3-7619).  All are invited to attend!  Light lunch will be provided

Presenters include Mark Gestring, M.D., director of Adult Trauma at Strong Memorial Hospital, Jeff Rideout, LMSW, Social Work, Golisano Children’s Hospital, Paula Jarquin, Child Protective Services,  Monroe County Department of Human and Health Services, James McCauley, PAVE, Camp Good Days and Special Times, Mike Brooks, Pathways to Peace, City of Rochester, Office of the Mayor, and Michael Scharff, M.D., Children and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Rochester

This seminar series is funded in part by Cooperative Agreement which is shared by the American Association for Medical Colleges and the Centers for Disease Control.

Healthy Neighborhoods: A Revitalization Strategy

The Rochester Regional Community Design Center is hosting David Boehlke, a founding member of the Healthy Neighborhoods Group, on Thursday, April 24 from 7 to 9PM at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation, 111 N. Chestnut Street.   He will speak on “Healthy Neighborhoods: a Revitalization Strategy”.  Tickets are $15 at the door or $10 in advance.  For more information call 586-6650.

David Boehlke is a nationally recognized expert in neighborhood revitalization and the country’s leading authority on Healthy Neighborhoods. David has worked in more than 125 communities over his 30-year career. He has served in numerous capacities as consultant and executive director of several nonprofit organizations. He holds degrees in geography and architecture from Johns Hopkins and Harvard. David has spearheaded Healthy Neighborhoods work throughout the United States, has written seminal works on the topic, and has trained many of the nation’s leading practitioners of neighborhood revitalization.

You can read more about David and his work here.

Welcome to this blog!

Welcome to the Community Health VOICE blog. We created this blog to serve as a forum for University of Rochester faculty and staff and our partners in the region who are interesting in expanding access to care and improving understanding of the health problems that we face as a community.

Exposing an Invisible and Silent Monster Devouring Our Children (part 1)

This is the first in a series of three posts on the historic community response to lead poisoning in Rochester New York.

After becoming Principal of an urban, high-needs elementary school in Rochester, I set out to “level the playing field” for my school’s children and community. After raising nearly seven million dollars, replacing almost the entire school teaching staff, and creating numerous school/community partnerships, I noticed that I still had a core of children with critically serious learning and behavioral deficits. Puzzled by this, I was the first principal known to review my school children’s public health records, and what I found horrified me. What follows is a three-part story of the epic battle with what I call “the invisible and silent monster that devours our children”. — Ralph Spezio

“Leveling the Playing Field: Bringing Resources into a High-Needs Elementary School”

Enrico Fermi Elementary School No.17 had one of the highest rates of poverty (98%) of any school in Rochester when I was principal from 1990 to 2002, and as the leader of that school, I believed it was my responsibility to “level the playing field” for the children and families that were a part of our school community. When we bring resources into a school that are directly related to the improvement of teaching and learning, some are directly related to financial resources and some do not cost a cent. Even though we raised nearly $7 million dollars in the twelve years of our work, many of the most important initiatives were based upon school/community partnerships.

The following are just a handful of the partnerships and projects that were initiated to help close the gap for the children in this community:

• I stopped the open enrollment busing so that our school could become a true community school. This school is on Orchard Street, bordered by Jay St., Saxton St., and Campbell St. and the children walked to this school from their houses in the surrounding community.
• Because there was no pre-kindergarten program at School No.17, I formed a partnership with Kodak, and using Edison Technical and Vocational High School Students, built a building for pre-school. We then brought in a full Montessori program and were the first pre-school program in NYS to have received NAEYC National Accreditation.
• We changed almost the entire teaching staff at School 17 and hand-picked our classroom teachers from a unique urban teacher preparation program that we developed in partnership with SUNY Brockport. This program received national attention because it not only brought minority men and women into the urban elementary school, but it also was three times more stringent than the traditional method of teacher preparation.

“Summer in the City” Series Looking for Participants

The Partnership Committee of the Center for Community Health Faculty Group is planning the 2008 “Summer in the City” series.  The series consists of lunch hour discussions on topics related to community health improvement efforts. The committee would like to invite those of you who are involved with community-academic partnerships to consider organizing a presentation with your community partners.

If you are interested in presenting and would like more information about the process before making a final decision, I would be happy to send you our guidelines for organizers.

To submit proposals or for more information, contact Noelle Andrus, Ph.D., Director of Education for the Center for Community Health (275-5627).

Conference on Racial Disparities in Health

A day long conference, titled “Health Disparities: How Will Rochester Bridge the Racial Divide?” will be held on May 1st.   The conference is being presented by Perinatal Network of Monroe County and the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency with funding from the NYS Department of Health, Division of Family Health.

Rochester’s Health Divide:  Why is it that on virtually every measure of health, African Americans and Hispanics fare worse than their white counterparts? How can we bridge the divide when biology, environment, and behavior are all both cause and consequence of poor health? Join us for a discussion of the ways in which health disparities are manifest in our community and the life course basis for many of those disparities.  We will explore the cultural factors that influence both patient and provider behavior and how these factors contribute to disparities in health status and health care experiences.  Most importantly, we will engage the community in identifying what we – public and private institutions, employers, health and human service providers, and individuals – must do to reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities based on race. The result of this conference will be a community plan that sets specific goals and mobilizes resources to achieve them. Come and be part of the solution!

The conference will be held Thursday, May 1, 2008, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Airport located at 911 Brooks Avenue in Rochester.  Presenters include Patricia Brantingham, Executive Director of the Perinatal Network and Wade Norwood, director of the Department of Community Engagement for the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency.

There is no charge for attending this conference and there is plenty of free parking. However, space is limited and registration is required. Continental breakfast and lunch provided. Please respond to: jisaacs@PNMC-HSR.org, Phone: 546-4930, ext 215 or Fax: 546-3021.

The Dangers of Plastics and the Benefit of Exercise

The Washington Post reports that the federal the NIH appears to have reversed course and is preparing to waded into the debate over the potential health dangers of bisphenol A, or BPA, the ubiquitous chemical found in plastics. A draft report by the National Toxicology Program acknowledges that that chemical, which has been in plastic production for the past 60 years and is found in countless products, may cause cancer and other serious disorders. You can see a draft of the report here.

UPDATE: The New York Times is reporting that the Canadian government is about to declare BPA “toxic.”

USAToday has a story today on the importance of exercise on reducing belly fat. People who exercised for 60 minutes a day, 5 days a week, saw a 10% reduction in their midsection.

A Decision to Keep a Practice in the City

Great article in Sunday’s Democrat and Chronicle about Lisa Harris, MD — an associate professor of medicine affiliated with Highland Hospital — and her decision to keep practicing in the City of Rochester.

Doctor practices to serve the city

The last thing Lisa Harris wanted to do was open her own medical practice.

The daughter of retired City Court Judge Roy King, one of the first black lawyers to practice in Rochester, said she saw her father “working really hard, really long hours for years.”

But now Harris’ one-doctor practice, Temple Medical, located in downtown Rochester’s Temple Building, is 5 years old.

“There’s probably one day a month when I say, ‘Why in the world (did I do this?)’ But it’s like your baby,” said Harris, 46, of Penfield. “I love practicing medicine, I love the science.”

Harris specializes in pediatrics and internal medicine. She also is a clinical associate professor at University of Rochester and medical staff president at Highland Hospital.

A graduate of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Harris was practicing at Highland Family Medicine when it moved from its South Avenue location in 2003. Wanting to continue in an urban setting, she said: “It was either leave Rochester or private practice.”

Philly Schools Cut Weight Gain

Reuters and several other outlets have run stories today on the results of a two-year effort to lower obesity in Philadelphia’s schools. The schools implemented a program developed by the Food Trust, a non-profit that works to increase access to affordable, healthy foods, which included changes in food vending machine products, student incentives for healthy eating, and lessons no good nutrition.

According to the study, which was compiled by researchers at Temple University, this approach reduced the number of overweight children by 50 percent. You can read the Reuters story here and a HealthDay story here.