In This Issue
 
Jan. 4 - Feb. 28, 2021
During the 8-week healthy competition, track activities like eating healthy foods and physical activity, and earn points for a chance to win prizes. Register here!


Save the Date:
March 4th, 2021

Live Smart Texas News      

Stay-at-home orders continue to affect children and young adults across the state of Texas. Harris County Public Health started two contests to keep students active and engaged in healthy eating and physical activity habits. The "Design Your Walk!" contest is a chance for Pasadena (Houston) ISD 9th-12th grade students to create fun and creative crosswalks to promote school spirit and safety for pedestrians. 

Additionally, Harris County launched the #YouthAdvocacy Video Challenge.  The 1-minute challenge is a chance for students to highlight ways to make Harris County a healthier place to live, learn, and play. Students whose video is selected may have the opportunity to attend virtual meeting(s) with Texas Legislators!

The Partnership for a Healthy Texas identified eight health policies to consider for the 87th Legislature. The identified policies are aimed at impacting the obesity epidemic among school-age children in Texas. For more information about each priority, the white pages are available for download here!


In health,
Leah & Emily
Co-Chairs

 

 
The Oliver Foundation
Deadline: Rolling

   

Since the 2013 Legislative session, the Michael and Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living has hosted a legislative bill tracker that identifies proposed bills related to child and adolescent health, and to research taking place at the Center along with expertise of Center faculty. The 2021 legislative tracker is segmented into general categories, including early childhood education, food policy, school/after-school care, tobacco/e-cigarettes, and more.  To view the 87th Texas Legislative Bill Tracker, click here.


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From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas legislators have expressed needing access to accurate information in a timely manner from experts in the field. As a result, the Texas Research-to-Policy Collaboration (TX-RPC) Project has created multiple reports/one-pagers related to public health topics of interest expressed by Texas legislators.  All of their resources for improving measurable impact reports can be found here. To request additional resources and/or information on a certain public health topic, please complete the COVID-19 Rapid Response Request form here.

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The Texas Research-to-Policy (TX-RPC) Project has release a new report on the Impact of COVID-19 on Food Insecurity. Food insecurity among adults and children has increased
during the COVID-19 pandemic due to rising levels of unemployment, poverty, and limited access to school nutrition programs because of school closures. Current models predict that
54 million Americans (16%) will experience food insecurity in 2020 compared to 37 million Americans (11.5%) in 2018, an increase of 17 million food insecure Americans due to COVID-19. To read more, download the report here


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Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension's website provides information related to child care during COVID-19, online courses about statewide programs that are available to child care providers, the "Scrub Up Tune Up" Handwashing Program, and information and resources
about COVID-19.


The Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living has archived webinars on their website to check out! Click the titles to view the webinar!

Many clinics schools, and community health partners are having to reinvent how to deliver programs and services to help people live healthier lives during COVID-19. This webinar gave an overview of what to look for when choosing an online program so that decision makers can navigate the large market of remote programs and apps available insight on what makes implementation successful, how to overcome challenges, and best practices for measuring engagement were also presented.

Presenters: 
Melanie Hingle, PhD, MPH, RDN 
Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition Sciences, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, University of Arizona
Michael Lopez, MUP
Extension Program Specialist II, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension


This webinar explored the role of social media and perpetuating misinformation about COVID-19. In particular, Dr. Woolley explored how different digital tools (bots, sock puppets, etc.) and new manipulation tactics (nanoinfluence, Instagram influence 'pods') are used to spread manipulative, often false, information about the disease and the pandemic.

Presenter: 
Samuel C. Woolley, PhD
Assistant Professor, School of Journalism, Assistant Professor, School of Information, Project Director for Propaganda Research, Center for Media Engagement, 
University of Texas at Austin

 
Over 30 years ago, the fetal origins hypothesis proposed that nutrition in pregnancy can influence the health of the offspring across the life course. Research showed that both excessive and inadequate nutrition during pregnancy increases the risk of obesity in the offspring. Concurrently, the less well-known, the fetal originals hypothesis was being investigated in the field of environmental health, increased exposure to air pollution, tobacco smoke, and other environmental chemicals during pregnancy have now been linked to childhood obesity. This webinar will describe recent evidence on the fetal origins of obesity.

Presenter:
Brianna Moore, PhD, MS
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, UTHealth School of Public Health Austin

 
The air, the invisible threat, from the perspective of an environmental health practitioner. The role of building mitigation strategies to protect building occupants and open schools, restaurants, businesses to restart our economy safely. What's right and safe for you!

Presenter: 
Linda D. Lee, DrPH, MBA
Chief Medical Affairs and Science Officer, UV Angel


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Texas Action for Healthy Kids has archived webinars on their website to check out! Click the titles to view the webinar!

According to the 2018 Texas Youth Tobacco Survey, 13% of youth used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days. This means that 18.9% of high school students and 6.0% of middle school students used e-cigareettes in the past 30 days. E-cigarettes are dangerous and we must provide our school with the resources and support to keep our children safe. Join us for two webinars that will share resources policies and programs to help you help your school fight against vaping.

Part I:
  • Information on the youth vaping epidemic, laws, and policies
  • Overview of the links between vaping, lung health, and infectious diseases, like coronavirus
  • In-depth look at the evidence-based CATCH My Breath curriculum including STEM and Humanities
Part II:
  • Policies that can have a major impact at state, local and campus level
  • SAYWHAT! youth engagement initiative
  • Students share their experiences and success

 


(Cardel MI, Pavela G, Janicke D, Huo T, Miller D, Lee AM, Gurka MJ, Dhurandhar E, Peters JC, Caldwell AE, Krause E, Fernandez A, Allison DB, 2020)


(Dooley EE, Pettee Gabriel K, Kohl HW, Durand CP, Hoelscher DM, Byrd-Williams C, 2020)


(Haida A, Sharma SV, Durand CP, Barlow SE, Salahuddin M, Butte NF, Hoelscher DM, 2020)


(Koboziev I, Scoggin S, Gong X, Mirzaei P, Zabet-Moghaddam, M, Yosofvand M, Moussa H, Jones-Hall Y, Moustaid-Moussa N, 2020)



Region 1: Dr. Naima Moustaid-Moussa, Texas Tech University (naima.moustaid-moussa@ttu.edu)

Region 2/3: Victoria Nelson, Children's Health - Dallas (Victoria.Nelson@Childrens.com)

Region 4/5N: 
Paula Butler, MAg, RDN, LD, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service (pibutler@ag.tamu.edu)

Region 6/5S: Dr. Sherri Onyiego, Harris County Public Health (Sherri.Onyiego@phs.hctx.net)


Region 7: Kristen Nussa, IT'S TIME TEXAS (kristen@itstimetexas.org

Region 8: Denise Benoit-Moctezuma, City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District (Denise.Benoit-Moctezuma@sanantonio.gov)

Region 9/10: Pema Garcia, Texas A&M University (pgarcia@arch.tamu.edu)

Region 11: Dr. Belinda Reininger, UTSPH Brownsville (Belinda.M.Reininger@uth.tmc.edu)