Land ecosystems are becoming less efficient at absorbing CO2

NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

Research News

 

Land ecosystems currently play a key role in mitigating climate change. The more carbon dioxide (CO2) plants and trees absorb during photosynthesis, the process they use to make food, the less CO2 remains trapped in the atmosphere where it can cause temperatures to rise. But scientists have identified an unsettling trend - as levels of CO2 in the atmosphere increase, 86 percent of land ecosystems globally are becoming progressively less efficient at absorbing it.

Because CO2 is a main 'ingredient' that plants need to grow, elevated concentrations of it cause an increase in photosynthesis, and consequently, plant growth - a phenomenon aptly referred to as the CO2 fertilization effect, or CFE. CFE is considered a key factor in the response of vegetation to rising atmospheric CO2 as well as an important mechanism for removing this potent greenhouse gas from our atmosphere - but that may be changing.

For a new study published Dec. 10 in Science, researchers analyzed multiple field, satellite-derived and model-based datasets to better understand what effect increasing levels of CO2 may be having on CFE. Their findings have important implications for the role plants can be expected to play in offsetting climate change in the years to come.

"In this study, by analyzing the best available long-term data from remote sensing and state-of-the-art land-surface models, we have found that since 1982, the global average CFE has decreased steadily from 21 percent to 12 percent per 100 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere," said Ben Poulter, study co-author and scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "In other words, terrestrial ecosystems are becoming less reliable as a temporary climate change mitigator."

What's Causing It?

Without this feedback between photosynthesis and elevated atmospheric CO2, Poulter said we would have seen climate change occurring at a much more rapid rate. But scientists have been concerned about how long the CO2 Fertilization Effect could be sustained before other limitations on plant growth kick in.

For instance, while an abundance of CO2 won't limit growth, a lack of water, nutrients, or sunlight - the other necessary components of photosynthesis -- will. To determine why the CFE has been decreasing, the study team took the availability of these other elements into account.

"According to our data, what appears to be happening is that there's both a moisture limitation as well as a nutrient limitation coming into play," Poulter said. "In the tropics, there's often just not enough nitrogen or phosphorus, to sustain photosynthesis, and in the high-latitude temperate and boreal regions, soil moisture is now more limiting than air temperature because of recent warming."

In effect, climate change is weakening plants' ability to mitigate further climate change over large areas of the planet.

Next Steps

The international science team found that when remote-sensing observations were taken into account - including vegetation index data from NASA's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments - the decline in CFE is more substantial than current land-surface models have shown. Poulter says this is because modelers have struggled to account for nutrient feedbacks and soil moisture limitations - due, in part, to a lack of global observations of them.

"By combining decades of remote sensing data like we have done here, we're able to see these limitations on plant growth. As such, the study shows a clear way forward for model development, especially with new remote sensing observations of vegetation traits expected in coming years," he said. "These observations will help advance models to incorporate ecosystem processes, climate and CO2 feedbacks more realistically."

The results of the study also highlight the importance of the role of ecosystems in the global carbon cycle. According to Poulter, going forward, the decreasing carbon-uptake efficiency of land ecosystems means we may see the amount of CO2 remaining in the atmosphere after fossil fuel burning and deforestation start to increase, shrinking the remaining carbon budget.

"What this means is that to avoid 1.5 or 2°C warming and the associated climate impacts, we need to adjust the remaining carbon budget to account for the weakening of the plant CO2 Fertilization Effect," he said. "And because of this weakening, land ecosystems will not be as reliable for climate mitigation in the coming decades."

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More than half of Hudson River tidal marshes were created accidentally by humans

Resilient Against Sea Level Rise UMass Amherst geologist and team studied marshes from Wall Street to Albany

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE ARRIVAL OF THE RAILROAD AND ASSOCIATED STRUCTURES IN 1850 ALONG THE BANKS OF NEW YORK'S HUDSON RIVER TIDAL ESTUARY IN SEVERAL AREAS CREATED THE CONDITIONS FOR MARSHES TO FORM.... view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY OF THE DAMS AND SEDIMENT IN THE HUDSON PROJECT

AMHERST, Mass. - In a new study of tidal marsh resilience to sea level rise, geologist and first author Brian Yellen at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues observed that Hudson River Estuary marshes are growing upward at a rate two to three times faster than sea level rise, "suggesting that they should be resilient to accelerated sea level rise in the future," he says.

Writing in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, Yellen and colleagues documented that more than half of Hudson River tidal marshes formed since 1850. That year, the channel was straightened and a riverside railroad, berms, jetties and human-made islands of dredged soil were built. This all trapped sediment and created backwaters that often - but not always - turned into marshes, an "unintended result of early industrial development," they state.

"In one case, historical aerial photos document this transition occurring in less than 18 years, offering a timeframe for marsh development," they point out. Yellen's co-authors are colleagues Jonathan Woodruff, Caroline Ladlow and undergraduate Waverly Lau at UMass Amherst, plus Sarah Fernald at New York's department of environmental conservation and David K. Ralston of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Yellen notes that for this "very collaborative" study, the researchers took advantage of "an experiment that has already happened over decades or centuries. Many of these accidental tidal marshes worked; they protect the shoreline and provide one of the richest ecosystems in terms of direct ecological and human benefits."

Further, marshes are "really useful," he adds - as a first line of defense against coastal flooding, essential habitat for juvenile commercial fish species, they store huge amounts of carbon that mitigates climate change, they provide habitat for migratory birds, filter nutrients coming off the land "and they're beautiful."

Yellen and colleagues write that these tidal wetlands "currently trap roughly 6% of the Hudson River's sediment load. Results indicate that when sediment is readily available, freshwater tidal wetlands can develop relatively rapidly in sheltered settings. The study sites serve as useful examples to help guide future tidal marsh creation and restoration efforts."

Their research involved seven sites spanning more than 100 miles of the Hudson Estuary, "from Wall Street up to Albany," Yellen says. The bays where tidal marshes developed started out six to seven feet deep and have steadily grown vertically. "One concern for marshes globally is that they will be drowned by rising sea level, but this case study shows how marshes can be created and it gave us some timing benchmarks for what is considered a tricky ecosystem restoration," he adds.

The researchers used two main methods to investigate the river's history and resilience in the face of sea level rise - sediment cores that shed light on how fast sediment accumulated and historical maps, charts and aerial photos to determine how the sites have changed over time. Yellen summarizes, "As long as there is space for sediment to accumulate, new marshes can develop. There is a community of land trusts up and down the river who are planning now for future sea level rise and considering where new marshes can form. This research will help them and state agencies guide land acquisition and land conservation strategies adjacent to the river to 2100 and beyond."

The research, part of the Dams and Sediment in the Hudson (DaSH) project, was supported by a grant to Ralston from NOAA's National Estuarine Research Reserve Collaborative, plus the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Interior Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center at UMass Amherst.

Also, Lau received a Polgar Fellowship from the Hudson River Foundation for her senior thesis project. She took the lead on one of the sites and made a short film about tidal marshes around the world and the Hudson River marsh near her home in Queens.

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NASA finds what a glacier's slope reveals about Greenland Ice Sheet thinning

NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

Research News 

IMAGE: GIF SHOWING THE POTENTIAL DISTANCES OVER WHICH THINNING CAN SPREAD INTO GREENLAND'S INTERIOR. GLACIERS IN REGIONS OF HIGHER ELEVATION, TEND TO PERVADE LESS INLAND THAN THOSE IN REGIONS OF LOWER... view more 

CREDIT: CREDITS: DENIS FELIKSON

As glaciers flow outward from the Greenland Ice Sheet, what lies beneath them offers clues to their role in future ice thinning and sea-level rise contribution.

Outlet glaciers are rivers of ice flowing within the cracks of the bedrock and draining into the surrounding sea. They retreat and start to thin as climate warms, and this thinning works its way toward the center of the ice sheet. Now, by looking at the bed topography beneath the ice, scientists have a better understanding of which glaciers could have a significant impact on the Greenland Ice Sheet's contribution to sea-level rise in coming years. They found that some glaciers flowing over gentler slopes could have a greater impact than previously thought. The gentle slopes allow thinning to spread from the edge of the ice sheet far into the interior, whereas glaciers with steep drops in their bed topographies limit how far into the interior thinning can spread.

The research, which was published December 11th in Geophysical Research Letters, analyzed 141 outlet glaciers on the Greenland Ice Sheet to predict how far into the interior thinning may spread along their flow lines, starting from the ocean edge.

"What we discovered is some glaciers flow over these steep drops in the bed, and some don't," said lead author Denis Felikson with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). "For the glaciers that do have that steep drop in the bed, thinning can't make its way past those drops." Borrowing a term from geomorphology - the study of Earth's physical features - they coined these steep drop features "knickpoints."

When a river flows over a knickpoint, it often results in a waterfall or a lake. But for glaciers, steep is a relative term which in reality translates to just about three degrees of incline. "It's not like the ice is going over a cliff," said Felikson. "But in terms of glacier dynamics, they are very steep - an order of magnitude more steep than a typical bed that the ice flows over."

The researchers were able to identify these "steep" changes in topography using digital elevation models of the ice sheet bed and surface topography. Surface topography came from the Greenland Ice Mapping Project, created using NASA's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite, in conjunction with data from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) mission. The bed topography digital elevation model, known as the BedMachine data set, is a high-resolution model of the bed beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, created using data from NASA's Operation IceBridge airborne surveys of polar ice.

"This bed topography data set was critical to us doing our work," Felikson said. "And it is thanks to NASA remote sensing, namely the Operation IceBridge surveys, that we were able to do this." Using the remote sensing data, scientists were able to compare topography measures to produce a single metric along a glacier's flow line. This helped them identify a break point between the upstream and downstream parts of the glacial ice.

Ice below the knickpoint is susceptible to thinning from the glacier's edge. But the thinning does not extend beyond this point upstream, so the interior of the ice sheet is not impacted.

Of all the glaciers observed, a majority (65 percent) had discernable knickpoints. Especially steep knickpoints are prevalent in the more mountainous regions of Greenland, where several of the biggest and fastest moving glaciers also show knickpoints that are relatively close to the coast. By sheer size alone these glaciers could contribute significantly to ice sheet thinning and melt, but because their knickpoints are near the coast, thinning is not expected to spread far inland.

However, glaciers that flow through gentle topography are found to either have gradual knickpoints, or no knickpoint at all. Such glaciers are of interest, and concern, because even those that are smaller in size have the potential to let thinning expand hundreds of kilometers inland, eroding the heart of the ice sheet.

"They could be impactful in terms of sea level rise, not because they are big and deep, but because they have access to more ice that they can eat away," said Felikson. "It will take them a lot longer to respond, but over the long term they could end up contributing just as much to sea level rise, maybe, as the big glaciers."

Over the gentle topography of the northwest coast of Greenland, nine of twelve neighboring glaciers are predicted to thin more than 250 km (155.3 miles) into the interior of the ice sheet, over a ?140-km (86.9 mile) wide region. The northwest sector of the ice sheet is also the only region experiencing an ongoing increase in ice discharge over the last couple decades, and Felikson predicts that it will continue to do so given the characteristics of these glaciers.

###

This work was started at the University of Texas as part of Felikson's dissertation and has continued throughout his time at NASA Goddard. The origins of knickpoints and their implications for long-term thinning, as well as Greenland's overall contribution to sea level rise, remain the basis for future research.

The data used in this study is available at:
https://zenodo.org/record/4284759

Ice sheet uncertainties could mean sea level will rise more than predicted

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON

Research News

 

Sea level could rise higher than current estimates by 2100 if climate change is unchallenged, according to a new assessment.

Its authors say understanding the way strong global heating affects polar ice sheets will be crucial to projecting sea level rise over the next century. However, uncertainties remain and current knowledge about ice sheets suggests sea-level rise under continued strong warming could be higher than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 'likely' range by 2100.

The authors of the study, published today in the journal One Earth, also suggest ways scientists can make predictions more certain, by improving our understanding of ice-sheet dynamics, such as how they interact with warming oceans and how they fracture and break apart.

Lead author Professor Martin Siegert, from the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment at Imperial College London, said: "Greenhouse gas emissions are still on the rise, and strong heating, of more than 4°C by 2100, is well within the realm of the possible if emissions continue unabated.

"Currently, hundreds of millions of people live in regions susceptible to coastal flooding, and the likelihood of even worse flooding will significantly increase with severe sea-level rise. The sea-level rise we have already faced has been somewhat mitigated by flood barriers and other measures, but we are unprepared for higher rates of rise that could overwhelm these measures. If we don't do more to avert dangerous global heating, we may reach a point where we can no longer protect people."

The team reviewed current models of the effect of warming on ice sheets that the IPCC's 2019 report on sea-level rise relies on. For the strong heating scenario of more than 4°C of temperature rise by 2100, the report gave a 'likely' range for sea-level rise of between 0.61 and 1.10 metres above 1950 levels.

However, the team's analysis showed that ice sheet models do not include sufficient detail on key processes that may lead to significant mass loss under strong warming, meaning sea level rise above the IPCC's likely range is far more possible than below it.

Co-author John Englander, President and Founder of the Rising Seas Institute, said: "Sea-level rise will be one of the most challenging issues faced by society in the coming decades. We need to recognize that we cannot stand by and wait for clarity about actual sea-level rise to begin planning for it.

"Waiting for better confidence in predictions is not a reason to delay building a margin of safety, for example into building codes and zoning, recognising the inevitability of sea-level rise and its catastrophic implications."

There are two main ways sea level can rise substantially at a global level. Throughout the twentieth century, rise has been dominated by thermal expansion - added heat driving water molecules apart, expanding the volume of the ocean water. In the twenty-first century, however, the second mechanism has become dominant: the addition of water from melting ice sheets and glaciers.

While sea-level rise due to thermal expansion can be predicted using relatively simple relationships between the temperature and the expansion, ice sheets and glaciers respond to rising temperatures in complex and interconnected ways that make prediction more fraught.

Researchers looking ahead to the next century of climate change and its increasing impact on human society, nature and the environment often look back at previous episodes of natural climate change for clues as to how various earth systems will react.

At the end of the last ice age, there is evidence that ice sheets responded to warming by rapidly losing mass at rates that at times were higher than currently observed, leading to several metres of sea-level rise per century.

The team say this means current projections of sea-level rise may be underestimates, as the ice sheets may lose mass faster over the coming century than our current models predict.

To improve models and predictions, the authors identify key areas of research that are needed to fill in our gaps in knowledge. These include better mapping of the ground beneath glaciers and ice sheets, collection of data at the margin where glaciers meet the ocean, and improved coupling of models of the atmosphere, oceans, and ice sheets.

While the network of existing observations of ice sheet dynamics already gives scientists a very strong warning signal and causes for concern, the authors say these improvements could lead to a next-generation 'early warning system' focused on signals of rapid change in sea level, such as increases in ocean water temperature along the margins of ice sheets.

Professor Siegert said: "We already have a good start on an early warning system for dangerous sea-level rise, with satellites, airborne platforms, robotic devices, field investigators, and expert knowledge. While this network is growing and getting stronger, it has major weaknesses at ice-sheet boundaries that require urgent action. We need to develop an array of robotic devices in key parts of Antarctica and Greenland that are most vulnerable and capable of rapid sea-level rise in the future."

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Recently discovered comet seen during 2020 total solar eclipse

NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

Research News

 

IMAGE: (LEFT) THE LASCO C2 CAMERA ON THE ESA/NASA SOHO OBSERVATORY SHOWS COMET C/2020 X3 (SOHO) IN THE BOTTOM LEFT-HAND CORNER. (RIGHT) A COMPOSITE IMAGE OF THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE ON... view more 

CREDIT: ESA/NASA/SOHO/ANDREAS MÖLLER (ARBEITSKREIS METEORE E.V.)/PROCESSED BY JAY PASACHOFF AND ROMAN VANUR/JOY NG. ECLIPSE IMAGE USED WITH PERMISSION.

As Chile and Argentina witnessed the total solar eclipse on Dec. 14, 2020, unbeknownst to skywatchers, a little tiny speck was flying past the Sun -- a recently discovered comet.

This comet was first spotted in satellite data by Thai amateur astronomer Worachate Boonplod on the NASA-funded Sungrazer Project -- a citizen science project that invites anyone to search for and discover new comets in images from the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO.

Boonplod discovered the comet on Dec. 13, the day before the eclipse. He knew the eclipse was coming, and was eager to see whether his new comet discovery might appear in the Sun's outer atmosphere as a small speck in eclipse photographs.

The comet, named C/2020 X3 (SOHO) by the Minor Planet Center, is a "Kreutz" sungrazer. This family of comets originated from a large parent comet that broke up into smaller fragments well over a thousand years ago and continues to orbit around the Sun today. Kreutz sungrazing comets are most commonly found in SOHO images. SOHO's camera works by mimicking total solar eclipses: A solid occulting disk blocks out the otherwise blinding light of the Sun, revealing dimmer features in its outer atmosphere and other celestial objects like comets. To date, 4,108 comets have been discovered in SOHO images, with this comet being the 3,524th Kreutz sungrazer spotted.

Around the time the eclipse image was taken, the comet was traveling at roughly 450,000 miles per hour, about 2.7 million miles from the Sun's surface. The comet was around 50 feet in diameter -- about the length of a semitruck. It then disintegrated to dust particles due to intense solar radiation, a few hours before reaching its closest point to the Sun.

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Potentially damaging surface ozone levels rose in lockdown

Less traffic in first lockdown reduced air pollution but caused potentially damaging surface ozone levels to rise

UNIVERSITY OF YORK

Research News

 

Less traffic on the roads during the first lockdown led to a reduction in air pollution but may have caused potentially damaging surface ozone levels to rise, a new study has revealed.

The study - led by the University of York - shows levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) down on average across the UK by 42 per cent, but surface ozone (O3) increased by 11 per cent on average.

Surface, or ground-level ozone, can trigger a variety of health problems, particularly for children, the elderly, and people of all ages who have lung diseases such as asthma.

Scientists believe our warm and sunny spring weather may have been a contributing factor.

The report concludes that if the Covid-19 lockdown is taken as an example of how air quality will respond to future reductions in vehicle emissions - with more electric vehicles being introduced - it serves as a warning that the problem of O3 must also be considered.

Professor James Lee from the Department of Chemistry and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science said during the first lockdown levels of O3 were the worst in the South of England.

Professor Lee added: "The problem is being created by the change in chemistry between NOx (nitrogen oxide) and O3. The main reason is the change in the nitrogen dioxide levels but the warm sunny weather in April and May also increased the ozone level. As a result we found UV radiation across the UK was higher in 2020 compared to previous years, with the largest increases in southern England.

"London, Chilton in Oxfordshire and Camborne in Cambridgeshire saw increases of around 50% compared to previous years, with Glasgow and Inverness showing smaller increases of around 30%.

"These results are a cautionary tale. As well as looking at how we reduce levels of nitrogen dioxide by cutting diesel and petrol emissions, we also need to keep an eye on what is happening with ozone so we don't create other forms of pollution dangerous to human health."

The report says in China nitrogen oxide reductions have also led to increases in O3 and air quality abatement strategies are being developed in order to offset the problem. This can be achieved by controlling volatile organic compounds (VOCs) - which are gases emitted into the air from products or processes of industry and other man-made activity.

Professor Lee added: "Our research shows it will be vital to control man-made VOCs to avoid any health gains made by the reduction of NO2 being offset by O3 increases."

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Data was collected from 175 Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) traffic monitoring sites across the UK between 23rd March and 31st May 2020 and compared with figures from the previous five years.

The study, "UK surface NO2 levels dropped by 42?% during the COVID-19 lockdown: impact on surface O3" is published in the journal, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

For more information 21/22 Dec email s.martin@york.ac.uk or on 23 Dec email julie.gatenby@york.ac.uk

Concern about loved ones might motivate people to mask up and get vaccine

New research suggests the thought of being a protector overrides desire for personal freedoms when it comes to COVID-safety messages

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Research News

 

ANN ARBOR, Michigan -- While many people have listened to messaging about wearing a mask and following social distancing guidelines to limit the spread of COVID-19, resistance remains. A new study finds that appealing to people's concerns for their loved ones could overcome this resistance. And it may have implications for encouraging people to get the new vaccine.

In a recent survey, people who said social distancing and COVID-safety guidelines violated their personal freedoms responded more positively to these ideas when they felt a loved one might be at risk of severe illness for COVID-19.

"Emphasizing the benefits of being a protector for others (instead of yourself) looks to be more effective in promoting greater adherence to recommended practices," says study author Lawrence An, M.D., associate professor of general medicine at Michigan Medicine and co-director of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center's Center for Health Communications Research.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the United States, messaging focused on shaming or pressuring people to wear a mask or avoid crowds are backfiring.

"People who respond negatively to being 'told' what to do are much less likely - by more than 50% - to routinely wear a mask. However, at the same time, concern for others increases mask wearing, especially among those who report greater negativity," An says.

An and colleagues surveyed 1,074 people across the United States about their attitudes toward the coronavirus. They discovered two distinct sets of attitudes toward social distancing:

• Positive beliefs that largely mirror public health messaging
• Negative beliefs, including the idea that social distancing violates individual rights and freedoms

Concern about a loved one's risk of severe COVID-19 infection was tied to both higher positive attitudes and lower negative attitudes toward social distancing. When people considered their own personal risk, they had higher positive attitudes but it did not impact their negative attitudes.

"When people think about what protective behaviors to follow, negative beliefs - the perception of external control - override positive beliefs. This means that simply repeating that people should follow public health guidelines is unlikely to be effective," says study author Kenneth Resnicow, Ph.D., professor of health behavior and health education at the U-M School of Public Health and associate director of community outreach and engagement at the Rogel Cancer Center.

"However, our data show that when people consider being a protector for others, they approach risk differently. They are less likely to let their personal beliefs and politics discourage them from practicing COVID protection. Emphasizing the act of protecting others may help people who would otherwise be reluctant to practice COVID protection to feel independent and strong, rather than compliant or obedient," he says.

Recognizing that these distinct positive and negative attitudes about social distancing could help shape social distance policies and inform efforts to encourage people to follow them, An and Resnicow teamed up with CULTIQUE, an LA-based firm that advises the entertainment industry on cultural issues, to encourage messaging about protecting loved ones from the coronavirus in content, social media and news.

According to the latest data from the CDC, 40% of the population is considered at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19. People with chronic health issues are 12 times more likely to die from COVID-19.

"For those who are caring for someone with cancer or other conditions, protecting your loved one is critical," An says.

Protectors can take responsibility for monitoring the at-risk person's COVID exposure and protecting them from the disease by limiting the person's exposure to others. This includes doing the shopping, maintaining cleaning protocols and PPE, and providing safe transportation to appointments.

"The prospect of losing someone is even more terrible knowing that we could be in the homestretch of this pandemic. With vaccines on the horizon, it's more important than ever to follow social distancing measures to help end COVID-19 sooner," Resnicow says.

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Additional authors: Sarah Hawley, Ph.D.; M. Lee Van Horn, Ph.D.; Elizabeth Bacon, MPH; Penny Yang

Funding: National Cancer Institute grants P30CA046592-29-S4 and P30CA046592, Google Focus Award

Disclosure: None

Reference: Patient Education and Counseling, doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2020.11.027

Related: Be a Protector by Keeping Loved Ones Safe from COVID: http://michmed.org/Bvkzj

US public attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccine mandates

JAMA NETWORK OPEN

Research News

 

What The Study Did: Researchers assessed the acceptability of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the U.S. public.

Authors: Emily A. Largent, J.D., Ph.D., R.N., of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, is the corresponding author.

doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.33324

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article 

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UH Mānoa researcher examines why people choose to wear face coverings

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA

Research News

 

IMAGE: PUBLISHED BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS ON BEHALF OF THE SOCIETY OF BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE 2020. THIS WORK IS WRITTEN BY (A) US GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE(S) AND IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN IN... view more 

CREDIT: PUBLISHED BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS ON BEHALF OF THE SOCIETY OF BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE 2020. THIS WORK IS WRITTEN BY (A) US GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE(S) AND IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN IN...

Wearing a face covering in public is dependent upon how often people observe others wearing them, according to recent findings. Other important motivating factors are among findings of a national study undertaken by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through lead author Jack Barile, interim director of the Social Science Research Institute in University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's College of Social Sciences. More than 1,000 U.S. adults, ages 18 and older, who are representative of the U.S. population by gender, age, region, race/ethnicity and education, were surveyed.

"In this study, we examined what motivators are behind an individual's choice to wear or not wear a face covering in public," Barile said. "This understanding is critical to developing successful messaging strategies to encourage acceptance and use of face coverings to prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19."

The study suggests that being female, perceived importance of others wanting the respondent to wear a face covering, confidence to wear a face covering and perceived importance of personal face covering use were all factors positively associated with intention to wear a face covering in public.

No evidence was found that a perceived susceptibility to becoming ill and a perceived severity of COVID-19 correlated with an increase in the intent to use a face covering in public.

"The survey allowed us to explore both the barriers and facilitators to the public's use of face coverings, as well as to identify possible pathways through which the use of face coverings while in public could be increased among the U.S. population," Barile said. "Based on our findings, it is possible that messaging strategies that focus on susceptibility to and severity of COVID-19 may not be as effective as targeting actions that influence individual intentions and social norms."

Barile noted that, while distributions of the first vaccine to prevent COVID-19 have begun in the U.S., health officials predict that it will be months before the vaccine is readily available to all individuals who seek it.

"This makes mask wearing in public, especially when social distancing is difficult to maintain, an essential component in the continuing effort to reduce the virus' transmission," he said.

The study was published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, the Society of Behavioral Medicine's flagship journal. It publishes original empirical articles on behavioral medicine and the integration of biological, psychosocial and behavioral factors and principles.

Theoretical Model of Assessed Paths for Face Covering Use in Public (IMAGE)

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA

CAPTION

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Behavioral Medicine 2020. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

CREDIT

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Behavioral Medicine 2020. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

Socioeconomic background linked to survival after having a cardiac arrest in hospital

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CARDIOLOGY

Research News

 

IMAGE: GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT view more 

CREDIT: EUROPEAN HEART JOURNAL

Hospital in-patients from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to receive prompt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after their hearts stop beating and less likely to survive than patients from higher socioeconomic backgrounds.

These are the findings of a new study in over 24,000 patients in Sweden, published in the European Heart Journal [1] today (Monday). It is the first European study to investigate this and the first to show that socioeconomic status (SES), rather than other factors, is important. The authors believe their findings could hold true for other European countries as well.

It is known that people with lower SES are less likely to survive a sudden cardiac arrest outside the hospital setting compared to those of higher SES but, until now, it has not been clear whether this was the case for patients already in hospital where they could expect to receive the same standard of care regardless of their backgrounds.

In the current study, Professor Jens Agerström, from Linnaeus University in Kalmar and Växjö, Sweden, and his Swedish colleagues, found that patients in hospital with higher incomes and education were significantly less likely to experience a delay in receiving CPR after a cardiac arrest, and significantly more likely to survive until discharge from hospital and for 30 days after the cardiac arrest.

Prof. Agerström said: "The good news is that for most of the cardiac arrest cases in this study, socioeconomic status didn't seem to matter. Nevertheless, there seems to be a significant number of deaths that can still be attributed to socioeconomic factors, even when we take account of things that could affect the results such as gender, age, ethnicity, other health conditions, cause of the cardiac arrest, and the specific hospital providing the treatment.

"The study investigated several outcomes but, for example, if we look at survival for 30 days after the cardiac arrest, approximately 280 people in 1000 from a low socioeconomic background will survive; however, for patients from a high socioeconomic background approximately 320 people may survive to 30 days."

The researchers also found that patients with higher SES were significantly more likely to have their heart rhythm monitored before they suffered a cardiac arrest and this was associated with less delay before CPR, a shorter duration of CPR and increased survival immediately afterwards and 30 days later. This could partially explain the differences in survival.

Prof. Agerström said: "Even when we took account of patients' other medical conditions, we found that patients with higher income and education were more likely to receive heart rhythm monitoring. In fact, we found that patients from high socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to be monitored even if their health status was better than patients from low socioeconomic backgrounds. This suggests that there may be a bias in the way treatment is provided. Although doctors make the decision whether or not to monitor heart rhythm, we cannot rule out that patients from high socioeconomic backgrounds may request more monitoring."

The researchers write in their paper: "The finding that SES difference remain after controlling for major demographic, clinical and contextual factors suggests the presence of treatment bias/discrimination. Such bias, where patients are treated differently due to their SES, may stem from prejudiced attitudes among hospital staff."

They continue: "Reassuringly, however, most of the uncovered associations between patient SES and the studied outcomes are small, meaning that a large majority of IHCA [in-hospital cardiac arrest] patients with low SES is not subjected to disparate treatment. However, because human lives are at stake, a SES-related survival odds difference of approximately 21% (our effect size for 30-day survival) should not be ignored. This would mean that 818 of the 14,714 IHCA deaths of the lowly educated patients . . . could be attributed to education." They suggest that hospitals may want to consider enrolling their cardiac arrest teams in equality training programmes to help them be aware of their possible bias and how this could translate into discriminatory treatment.

The researchers analysed data from the Swedish National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation for 24,217 cardiac arrests that occurred in patients aged 40 or over in Swedish hospitals between 2005 and 2018. They obtained socioeconomic data on patients from a second database and they used highest level of education and annual income as indicators of SES. They adjusted their results to take account of factors that could affect them, such as age, gender, ethnicity, other medical conditions, hospital where they were treated, heart rhythm and the cause of the cardiac arrest.

Prof. Agerström said: "The current study only examined cases where resuscitation was started because these are the cases that appear in the Swedish National Registry of CPR. It's possible that SES disparities are more pronounced when the medical staff decide whether or not to initiate CPR in the first place."

Other limitations of the study include that it can show only that the SES is associated with CPR and survival, not that SES causes fewer CPR attempts and lower survival rates among people with low SES. The researchers did not have access to smoking habits and other lifestyle factors and, because the study was conducted in Sweden, it might not be possible to generalise to other countries.

"Because it has been shown that people with low SES face prejudiced attitudes in many societies and cultures, it is possible that there are SES disparities in in-hospital cardiac arrest care and outcome in other European countries too. This, of course, rests on the assumption that prejudice plays an important role in the observed differences," said Prof. Agerström.

He said he was prompted to carry out the research because of his own experiences. "After having studied discrimination in the labour market for many years with Dr. Magnus Carlsson, one of my co-authors, we thought that a natural next step would be to look at the health care system and possible treatment discrimination, which is much less researched. My own medical visits also played a role, as I got the impression that the staff often became more thorough after they had asked me about my profession."

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[1] "Discriminatory cardiac arrest care? Patients with low socioeconomic status receive delayed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and are less likely to survive an in-hospital cardiac arrest", by Jens Agerström et al. European Heart Journal. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehaa954