Obesity topic of healthtask force

The Fresno County Binational Health Task Force and the Department of Health Science at Fresno State will join the commemoration of the 5th annual U.S.-Mexico Binational Health Week with a forum on Latinos and obesity Oct. 12 at Fresno State.

The program, “Obesity: The Silent Epidemic in Latino Communities,” will be from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in University Center, Room 200. Parking restrictions will be relaxed in Lot D.

Speakers are Fresno State faculty members Dr. Helda Pinzon-Perez and Dr. Felicia Greer, plus Dr. Jose Gallegos Martinez, a staff physician at the Hospital de la Mujer (Women’s Hospital) in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico.

Pinzon-Perez, associate professor of health science, will discuss the influence of television ads on childhood obesity, as related to food selection of Latino farmworking mothers in Fresno County. Greer, assistant professor of kinesiology, will talk about the growing concern regarding obesity and physical inactivity among children and adolescents in the Valley. Martinez will discuss diabetes and obesity in Mexico.

Since its establishment in 2001, Binational Health Week has been instrumental in developing programs aimed at improving the health and well-being of migrant and immigrant workers and their families. Over the past four years, Binational Health Week events have provided more than 300,000 health interventions to the workers and families. The goal of this year’s Binational Health Week is to bring these essential services to 31 California counties, 23 other states in the United States, 18 Mexican states and three provinces in Canada.

Sponsors for the Fresno event include Health Net, the Student Health Science Association, the California Endowment and the Fresno County Binational Health Week Taskforce.

(Copy by University Communications student-intern Megan Jacobsen.)

For more information contained in this release, please go to the following Web sites:

Binational Health Week 2005

U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission