Consumer Health Resources for Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups

Culturally appropriate health materials for consumers can be difficult to identify. Many federal resources exist to help support minority health initiatives. In addition, national nonprofit organizations and state agencies provide materials to address the health needs of African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Asian Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders. This listing offers an initial list of primary resources that librarians can use to address consumer health inquiries from the public.     

Involving children and young people in clinical research through the forum of a European Young Persons’ Advisory Group: needs and challenges

Children and young people are seen as fundamental to the design and delivery of clinical research as active and reflective participants. In Europe, involvement of children and young people in clinical research is promoted extensively in order to engage young people in research as partners and to give them a voice to raise their own issues or opinions and for their involvement in planning and decision making in addition to learning research skills. Children and young people can be trained in clinical research through participation in young person advisory groups (YPAGs). Members of YPAGs assist other children and young people to learn about clinical research and share their experience and point of view with researchers, thereby possibly influencing all phases of research including the development and prioritization of research questions, design and methods, recruitment plans, and strategies for results dissemination. In the long term, the expansion of YPAGs in Europe will serve as a driving force for refining pediatric clinical research. It will help in a better definition of research projects according to the patients’ needs. Furthermore, direct engagement of children and young people in research will be favorable to both researchers and young people.     

Knowledge needs and the ‘savvy’ child: teenager perspectives on banning food marketing to children

Food marketing to children is a powerful factor in the health of young people. In Canada, one proposed measure to protect young people is to ban all food and beverage marketing to children under age 13. Since policy initiatives should consider the voices of those directly impacted, we conducted focus groups with teenagers aged 12–14 – precisely those individuals who would be directly impacted by, or just over, the age threshold proposed. The majority of teenagers consulted were opposed to a ban on food marketing, framing food marketing as a way to meet their consumer needs. Such perspectives mirror the arguments made by the food industry, and suggest that teenagers’ self-identification as consumers trump questions of ethics or public health. Even though teenagers argue that marketing is often misleading, they do not view regulation as a solution – a view troubled by the fact that many of the teenagers underestimated their own vulnerability to marketing. The research points to the need for a more complex understanding of how food marketing messages are understood by teenagers, for a more robust media literacy education, and for the need to engage – not ignore – young people when it comes to issues of public health.     

Potato processing in the central highlands of Peru

The processing of food products is an important economic activity of rural households in the Andean Highlands of Perú. Potatoes are processed into several dehydrated products the most common of which are chuño and papa seca. Chuño is a freezedried product made principally from bitter types of potatoes (Solarium juzepczukii and S. curtilobum) while papa seca is made from common varieties. This article describes how these and other products are made and their role within the Peruvian diet.     

Mental health care professionals' accounts of actions and responsibilities related to managing physical health among people with severe mental illness

Background

Life expectancy of people with severe mental illness (SMI) is greatly shortened compared to the general population, and despite extensive research, this issue is unsolved. Although it is widely recognised that people with SMI need support from health care services to manage health related issues, profound health inequalities exist within provision of health care. The aim of this study was to examine how mental health care professionals accounted for their actions and responsibilities related to managing physical health issues among people with SMI.