The Alabama Public Health Training Center (ALPHTC) invites all to participate in the upcoming satellite broadcast: “Inequities in Food Security Across the Lifespan: Cultural and Geographic Issues” on Wednesday, February 1, 2012, 12:00-1:30 PM (CST)

Presenter: Joseph R. Sharkey, PhD, MPH, RD, Director of the Texas Healthy Aging Research Network, Texas A&M Health Science Center, School of Rural Public Health.

For more information and registration: http://ow.ly/8MKKC [Alabama Dept. of Public Health]

 In a new report, Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2012 Benchmarking Report, the Alliance for Biking & Walking ranks all 50 states and the 51 largest U.S. cities on bicycling and walking levels, safety, funding, and other factors.

To access highlights and the full report, go to: http://ow.ly/8L4q1 [PHPartners.org]

Have you been thinking about how to participate in drills and exercises, but aren’t sure where to begin? The Central U.S. ShakeOut Drill is scheduled for 10:15 AM on February 7, 2012. The main goal of the ShakeOut is to get everyone prepared for major earthquakes. This is an easy drill to practice in your workplace. Register online and find resources such as posters, flyers, web banners, and other promotional items you can print or use. You will even find articles you may reprint in your newsletter or website. Take advantage of this opportunity to carry out a drill for your library, public health or emergency organization!

More information may be found at: http://ow.ly/8L3JP .

This past week,  First Lady Michelle Obama and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced new and improved nutrition standards for school lunches, marking the first major changes in 15 years. In accordance with last year’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, “The new standards make the same kinds of changes that many parents are already encouraging at home, including ensuring kids are offered fruits and vegetables every day of the week, substantially increasing offerings of whole grain-rich foods, offering only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties and making sure kids are getting proper portion sizes.”

More information, including the press release and a sample menu: http://ow.ly/8J2ZM .

The National Library of Medicine Training Center (NTC) will be creating web based self-paced tutorials related to PubMed®, TOXNET®, and NCBI databases.

We need your input in order to inform topics, length, and format of the tutorials we will develop. Please visit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ntctutorial to complete a short questionaire.  The questionnaire should take 10-15 minutes to complete.

Please complete the questionnaire by close of business on Friday, February 17, 2012.

Questions may be directed to Sharon Dennis, Assistant Director of the NTC, at sharon.dennis@utah.edu .

Indian Education Demonstration Grants for Indian Children
Application deadline: Feb 21, 2012

Grants to provide financial assistance to projects to develop, test, and demonstrate the effectiveness of services and programs to improve the educational opportunities and achievement of preschool, elementary, and secondary Indian students. http://1.usa.gov/zXvr6F

Indian Education Formula Grants to Local Educational Agencies (Part I)
Application deadline: Feb 10, 2012

Grants to support local educational agencies (LEAs) and other eligible entities described in this notice in their efforts to reform and improve elementary and secondary school programs that serve Indian students. http://1.usa.gov/zM8K4x

Indian Education Formula Grants to Local Educational Agencies (Part II)
Application deadline: May 4, 2012

Grants to support local educational agencies (LEAs) and other eligible entities described in this notice in their efforts to reform and improve elementary and secondary school programs that serve Indian students. http://1.usa.gov/zM8K4x

[Rural Assistance Center] http://bit.ly/A5jY2o

A new online toolkit will serve as a pilot program for providing health information technology (HIT) resources to rural health care providers. The toolkit, developed by the Rural Assistance Center (RAC) and the National Rural Health Resource Center (The Center) is designed to help rural providers find resources for HIT, electronic health records (EHR), meaningful use and related topics. Funding for the toolkit, available at http://www.raconline.org/hit/, is provided by the federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP).

Moderate caffeine intake associated with higher level for Asians, lower for whites

Asian women who consumed an average of 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day — the equivalent of roughly two cups of coffee — had elevated estrogen levels when compared to women who consumed less, according to a study of reproductive age women by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

However, white women who consumed 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day had slightly lower estrogen levels than women who consumed less. Black women who consumed 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day were found to have elevated estrogen levels, but this result was not statistically significant.

Total caffeine intake was calculated from any of the following sources: coffee, black tea, green tea, and caffeinated soda. http://1.usa.gov/zr20Jv [NIH News]

Check the Health Affairs’ web site for a new paper on health literacy and health policy by HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, Howard Koh, and other HHS colleagues.  You should be able to access this article for another week or so without a Health Affairs’ subscription.  The article will appear in their print journal in early February – http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/early/2012/01/18/hlthaff.2011.1169

Last week, the Institute of Medicine Health Literacy Roundtable also released a discussion paper on the Attributes of a Health Literate Organization.  This brief paper is based on the Roundtable’s November 2011 workshop on the same topic. To access the paper, visit the Institute of Medicine web site: http://www.iom.edu/Activities/PublicHealth/HealthLiteracy.aspx

Both of these papers represent a major step forward for health literacy issues as part of mainstream health policymaking. [HealthLiteracy list]

The Urban Indian Health Institute is pleased to release Community Health Profiles for each Urban Indian Health Organization (UIHO) service area: http://www.uihi.org/urban-indian-health-organization-profiles/

These reports examine the health of American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/AN) living in each of the 34 UIHO service areas using the most current data available from the 2012 U.S. Census, the American Community Survey (ACS), the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), the U.S. Center for Health Statistics and the Air Quality System Data Mart.  The Community Health Profiles are intended to provide UIHO and other key stakeholders with a picture of the health of urban Indian people.  The UIHI updates these reports every two years.

The UIHI welcomes input about this and other reports.  If you have any comments, questions or other feedback, please contact Noa Kay, Project Coordinator at 206-812-3041 or noak@uihi.org. [Urban Indian Health Institute]