Sam’s Club event

Sam’s Club event

BOARDMAN

Sam’s Club Hearing Center, 6361 South Ave, is celebrating the New Year with an open house and health event from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Jan. 9. There will be learning, fun, snacks, giveaways and information. Participants are encouraged to bring in a list of prescriptions for important information as well.

Membership is not required to use the Sam’s Club Hearing Center for a free comprehensive hearing test. Sam’s Club offers a 90-day money-back guarantee on all hearing aids that are fit at Sam’s Club.

Other health and wellness services provided by Sam’s Club include free preventative health screenings on the second Saturday of every month and complementary “brown bag” medicine checkups.

Information is available at SamsClub.com/healthyliving.

Decline in health

According to the recently released America’s Health Rankings report from United Health Foundation, Ohio has witnessed a steady decline in overall health over the past 25 years. In 2015, Ohio is ranked 39th among the states, a significant drop from 27th in 1990.

Challenges in Ohio continue to include a high prevalence of obesity and diabetes, along with low per capita public health funding.

Strengths in the state include low incidence of salmonella, low percentage of individuals who are uninsured and availability of primary-care physicians.

This year’s data show that as a nation, Americans are smoking less and living less- sedentary lifestyles; however, our country is facing complex health challenges that threaten Americans’ health and quality of life. Obesity and diabetes are at all-time highs, and rates of drug deaths, including illegal and prescription drug abuse, and children living in poverty are on the rise.

New feeding site

YOUNGSTOWN

Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley will launch a new feeding site downtown at 551 Mahoning Ave. The kitchen is expected to begin operations in the second quarter of 2016.

According to Second Harvest Executive Director Mike Iberis, a philanthropic family in the Mahoning Valley, which has chosen to remain anonymous, will provide funding necessary to erect and maintain the soup kitchen.

“We are humbled by this generous gift and the confidence the donor has placed in Second Harvest Food Bank to provide food to those who are the most vulnerable. A hot meal will be served daily, and the recipients will be given food to take with them because many are homeless and have no way to prepare food for themselves,” Iberis said.

Ralph “Skip” Barone will join the food-bank staff as director of this new program.

100th transplant

PITTSBURGH

Palermo-based ISMETT, a leading Italian transplant center managed by UPMC, has performed its 100th adult living-donor liver transplant. The patient, a Sicilian woman from Catania, received part of her husband’s liver in October and was discharged home earlier this month.

The first living-donor liver transplant at ISMETT in Palermo was performed in 2002. In addition to the 100 living-donor liver transplants in adult patients, 15 have been done in children.

In Italy, living-donor liver transplantation is regulated by the National Transplantation Center, which authorizes this surgery only for centers with transplant survival rates in line with the best European centers.