SPOTLIGHTS

MYRIAM TORRES

Meet Salud America! Grantee Myriam Torres

Myriam Torres, a South Carolina researcher who has a strong record of improving minority health, knows the critical situation of Latino health in her state.

South Carolina's Latino population surged 342 percent from 1990 to 2005.

Most Latinos here have spent less than eight years in the U.S. and many aren’t English proficient and are uninsured.

More than 17 percent of Latino children here are obese, compared to less than 12 percent of whites, and they don’t meet physical activity recommendations.

These factors make obesity prevention a top priority, Torres said.

And that's why, thanks to Salud America! pilot funding, Torres and her colleagues created Juntas Podemos (Together We Can), in which Latina mothers will photograph the neighborhoods their children live in, in order to convince civic leaders to make healthier environments in West Columbia, S.C.

"As a Latina, I cannot have peace seeing all the needs around me and doing nothing, so we thought about effective ways to help prevent the obesity epidemic among children," said Torres, a clinical assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of South Carolina. "We thought that empowering the mothers is the best way to attack any problem."

Torres is one of 20 pilot researchers funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through Salud America! for $75,000 over two years.

Torres' pilot project, Juntas Podemos, began in July 2009.

Juntas Podemos will: set up an advisory group of mothers, researchers and city/school officials; give mothers cameras to document children's play and barriers to play; interview school officials about children's play behaviors; analyze results in focus groups; and present the findings and recommend policies to city/school officials.

"We believe Latina mothers will generate policy recommendations about opportunities for physical activity for children," Torres said.

Torres sees her project as a new part of her already vast experience trying to improve the health of Latinos in South Carolina.

As a PhD student at the University of South Carolina, she first got involved in Latino issues by helping on a Latino-focused research grant led by her mentor, Caroline Macera.

Today she directs the University of South Carolina's Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies. The consortium, created in 2004, promotes and coordinates interdisciplinary and transnational research on the experiences of Latinos in South Carolina and the Southeast.

Her research has included: a statewide Latino health needs assessment; a study on the use of preventive health services among different Latino populations; a perinatal HIV prevention program for Latinas; a study on the economic impact of Latinos on South Carolina; and a study looking at the effects of the economic recession and South Carolina’s 2008 immigration law on Mexicans living in the state.

She is a member of many local, regional and state Latino community groups, and often brings her research findings to these venues. She also provides cultural competency training where needed.

And now Torres hopes Juntas Podemos can reduce Latino childhood obesity rates.

"We think our project will empower Latino families," she said, "and help them think about childhood obesity and develop solutions that can work for them."

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