Heart health is sub-optimal among American Indian/Alaska Native women, supports needed

AI/AN women have more risk factors for poor heart health, such as high rates of Type 2 diabetes, obesity and smoking, and increased exposure to trauma and violence, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

Statement Highlights:

• In its first scientific statement addressing cardiovascular health in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) women of childbearing age, the American Heart Association reports that more than 60% of AI/AN women already have suboptimal heart health when they enter pregnancy, which is strongly related to the development of heart disease later in life.

• In addition, more than 4 in 5 AI/AN women reported they have experienced violence, and they are disproportionately likely to have also experienced a high number of adverse childhood experiences, which contribute to higher heart disease risk.

• Type 2 diabetes is the predominant, traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor in AI/AN women, with a prevalence of up to 72% among women in some AI/AN communities.

• Addressing heart disease risks in AI/AN women requires attention to traditional CVD risk factors and social determinants of health, as well as understanding how the legacy of colonization, exploitation, racism and discrimination shape the health of AI/AN individuals.

DALLAS, May 31, 2023 — Heart health risks emerge early in life in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) women and are increased by social factors — like high levels of experiencing violence and traumatic life events — and disproportionately high rates of Type 2 diabetes, smoking and obesity, according to a new scientific statement published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a peer-reviewed American Heart Association journal.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in the U.S. and the second leading cause of death in AI/AN women in the U.S. Overall, AI/AN individuals are 50% more likely to be diagnosed with premature cardiovascular (CVD) disease than their white counterparts. According to the statement, more than 60% of AI/AN women have suboptimal heart health when they become pregnant, which is strongly related to the development of heart disease later in life.

“Cardiovascular disease rates are particularly high in AI/AN women of reproductive age, for whom early detection and management of CVD remain paramount for improving cardiovascular health and reducing premature death,” said Garima Sharma, M.D., FAHA, chair of the writing committee for this scientific statement. “We hope to bring to the forefront the disproportionate burden of CVD, adverse pregnancy outcomes and poor maternal health in American Indian and Alaska Native women as maternal mortality in the United States continues to increase.”

Sharma is the director of women’s cardiovascular health and cardio-obstetrics at Inova Health System in Falls Church, VA, and adjunct associate professor at the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

This is the first time maternal cardiovascular health in AI/AN individuals has been addressed in an American Heart Association scientific statement. The writing group reported on cardiovascular health status among AI/AN women based on the Association’s optimal heart health metrics called Life’s Essential 8. The statement also highlights underrecognized risks and social determinants of health that disproportionately affect AI/AN individuals. These environmental risk factors include food insecurity, inadequate access to care, psychological health factors (anxiety, depression), posttraumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, intimate partner violence, institutional and structural racism, and the historical context of colonization, dominance and exploitation of AI/AN people and lands.

Social determinants of health

The statement stresses the impact of social determinants of health on mental health and substance use disorders in AI/AN women. Despite their geographic and cultural differences, AI/AN women often share common experiences of racism and discrimination, which contribute to an overall environment of mistreatment and toxic stress, according to the statement.

More than 84% of AI/AN women experience violence in their lifetime, which may be reflected in the high prevalence of mood disorders, anxiety, and substance and alcohol use disorders in this population.

AI/AN women are also disproportionately more likely to have experienced a high number of adverse childhood experiences, such as neglect, abuse or having a parent in prison, which increase the likelihood of high-risk behaviors (cigarette smoking, substance use, etc.) and chronic disease in adulthood.

“AI/AN women’s mental and behavioral health disparities reflect the toxic stress and trauma of violence,” said Sharma. “Maternal care for AI/AN women must address traditional as well as social and cultural determinants of health. Common CVD risk factors such as Type 2 diabetes, obesity, smoking and premature atherosclerosis are aggravated in AI/AN individuals by chronic stress, intergenerational trauma, violence, adverse childhood experiences and food insecurity.”

Traditional risk factors

Life’s Essential 8 metrics for optimal cardiovascular health include blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose/Type 2 diabetes, weight, diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure and sleep duration. While rates of high blood pressure and cholesterol disorders are similar among AI/AN women compared to women of other races, and most report leisure or work-related physical activity, other factors have a significant impact on their heart health:

• Type 2 diabetes is the predominant CVD risk factor in AI/AN women, with an age-adjusted prevalence three times higher than among white women. Type 2 diabetes has a prevalence of up to 72% in some AI/AN communities. Women with Type 2 diabetes are also more likely to have additional CVD risk factors.
• Obesity affects almost half of AI/AN women, also beginning in childhood, and contributes to other CVD risk factors such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and sleep problems.
• While only 10% of the U.S. population in general meets the American Heart Association’s dietary recommendations, it’s more difficult for AI/AN women because of barriers such as limited access to healthy food and lack of reliable transportation.
• About one-third of AI/AN women smoke cigarettes, more than twice the percentage of women who smoke in the United States population overall; this includes 7.2% who smoked during pregnancy.

Risks surrounding pregnancy

The statement highlights pregnancy risks related to cardiovascular health in AI/AN women:

• The pregnancy-related death rate is 26.5% among non-Hispanic AI/AN women — lower than among non-Hispanic Black women, who have the highest rate at 41.4%, yet much higher than the national average of 17.3% among all adults. Of those giving birth between ages 35 to 40, AI/AN women are five times as likely to die compared to white women.
• Peripartum cardiomyopathy, a form of heart failure during and immediately after pregnancy, is responsible for more deaths (14.5%) among AI/AN women than women of any other race or ethnicity.
• AI/AN women also experience significantly higher rates of other pregnancy complications in comparison to white women, such as infection, postpartum hemorrhage or gestational diabetes. Pregnancy complications are associated with increased cardiovascular risk among all women.
• When present, high blood pressure is a strong predictor of CVD. Pregnant people with obesity, which is prevalent among AI/AN women, are at greater risk for developing preeclampsia. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, such as gestational high blood pressure and preeclampsia, contribute to maternal death among AI/AN women.
• Only 60.4% of AI/AN women sought prenatal care in the first trimester compared with 81.6% of non-Hispanic white women. This disparity is driven by AI/AN women often living in rural communities — 40% live on tribal lands or reservations, rural or frontier communities with limited access to health care.

Addressing maternal health in AI/AN women

The statement makes several recommendations about ways to address cardiovascular risks among AI/AN women, including:

• Addressing adverse childhood experiences at the community and individual level, bolstering existing family connections and improving family functioning through referrals to child and adult mental health services, parenting programs and social services to counter the effects of past trauma and reduce additional family stressors.
• Establishing a framework free of stigma and judgment to address AI/AN women’s mental health and substance use within the context of structural racism and the long history of mistreatment of AI/AN individuals.
• Recognizing the personal stories of AI/AN women living with heart disease as a rich resource for health care professionals and researchers who are developing prevention and treatment programs. These women may also help reach others in the community as ambassadors.
• Providing appropriate screening and transfer of high-risk pregnancies to multi-disciplinary, team-based care, including preventive cardiology, maternal-fetal medicine, cardio-obstetrics and psychiatry.
• Developing an accessible workforce that provides culturally sensitive care, incorporating prenatal care, mental health care, birth workers and other health care professionals, including those from the tribal community.

“Health systems and community-based organizations that identify trauma and teach and celebrate resilience are essential to address mental and behavioral health needs and to promote healing of AI/AN women, families and communities,” the statement says.

Evidence used in developing the statement is limited by the small numbers of AI/AN women in clinical trials and the lack of health registries with data separated for the AN/AI population.

“We need to understand the health status of AI/AN populations and work collaboratively to improve cultural competency among our clinicians and partner with policymakers, health care professionals, local communities and tribal leadership to design better studies and include the voices of these patients in providing appropriate care,” said Sharma.

This scientific statement was prepared by the volunteer writing group on behalf of the American Heart Association’s Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke in Women and Underrepresented Populations Committee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology; the Council on Hypertension; the Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; the Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology; and the Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research. American Heart Association scientific statements promote greater awareness about cardiovascular disease and stroke issues and help facilitate informed health care decisions. Scientific statements outline what is currently known about a topic and what areas need additional research. While scientific statements inform the development of guidelines, they do not make treatment recommendations. American Heart Association guidelines provide the Association’s official clinical practice recommendations.

Co-authors are Vice Chair Allison Kelliher, M.D.; Jason Deen, M.D.; Tassy Parker, Ph.D., R.N.; Tracy Hagerty, M.D.; Eunjung Esther Choi, M.D.; Ersilia M. DeFilippis, M.D.; Kimberly Harn, M.Ed., R.T. (R), (M.R.); Robert Dempsey, M.D., FAHA; and Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, M.D., Sc.M., FAHA. Authors’ disclosures are listed in the manuscript.

The Association receives funding primarily from individuals. Foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers, and the Association’s overall financial information are available here.

Additional Resources:

• Available multimedia is on the right column of news release link https://newsroom.heart.org/news/heart-health-is-sub-optimal-among-american-indianalaska-native-women-supports-needed?preview=cf8231495df9dc804b775bffc3466452
• After May 31, view the manuscript online. 
• AHA news release: Rural residents, American Indians travel farthest for certified stroke care (June 2021)
• AHA News story: Plaque-lined arteries put future health of young American Indians at risk (Nov. 2021)
• Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public’s health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

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JOURNAL

Circulation Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes

DOI

10.1161/HCQ.0000000000000117 

ARTICLE TITLE

Status of Maternal Cardiovascular Health in American Indian and Alaska Native Individuals: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

COVID-19 vaccine builds powerful immune response in First Nations peoples, study finds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE PETER DOHERTY INSTITUTE FOR INFECTION AND IMMUNITY

Published in Nature Immunology and Nature Briefing, the research is the first of its kind to decisively map immune responses produced by a COVID-19 vaccination in any First Nations populations.

In partnership with Menzies School of Health Research, researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) evaluated immune responses in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous individuals after receiving the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

Lead author of the study and PhD candidate at the Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne’s Wuji Zhang, said the research provides strong evidence that COVID-19 vaccination triggers effective immune responses against the virus in First Nations peoples.

“We found excellent antibody and T cell responses against SARS-CoV-2 in Australian First Nations peoples following COVID-19 vaccination. We saw high levels of antibodies binding to the virus following two vaccine doses,” Mr Zhang said.

“T cells against the spike protein, which often recognise small sections of the virus and are similar across different variants, were also seen in higher numbers and showed ‘memory signatures’ following vaccination.”

University of Melbourne Professor Katherine Kedzierska, a Laboratory Head at the Doherty Institute, said the findings are the first to report excellent immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination in First Nations peoples.

“Like other studies on non-Indigenous cohorts, antibody responses against the COVID variants Delta and Omicron were lower compared to the ancestral strain, but were substantially increased following the booster vaccine dose.

Media release - Page 1

“While the results of the study are encouraging, it also showed that antibody responses are highly affected by comorbidities in Indigenous populations, especially diabetes and renal disease,” Professor Kedzierska said.

Associate Professor Jane Davies of Menzies School of Health Research said the results confirm the effectiveness of vaccination.

“Our research should further encourage First Nations communities around the world to get vaccinated and boosted,” Associate Professor Davies said.

“This work also highlights the crucial importance of being up-to-date with COVID vaccination for individuals with comorbidities, especially diabetes and renal disease.”

- ENDS

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JOURNAL

Nature Immunology

DOI

10.1038/s41590-023-01508-y 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

COVID-19 vaccine builds powerful immune response in First Nations peoples, study finds

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

30-May-2023

 New health indicator can revolutionize how we measure and achieve well-being

‘Human functioning’ complements morbidity and mortality to provide a holistic understanding of human health that goes beyond disease

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRONTIERS

 

IMAGE: ‘HUMAN FUNCTIONING’ COMPLEMENTS MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY TO PROVIDE A HOLISTIC UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN HEALTH THAT GOES BEYOND DISEASE view more 

CREDIT: FRONTIERS/SWISS PARAPLEGIC RESEARCH AND THE UNIVERSITY OF LUCERNE

The term ‘well-being’ entered popular vocabulary during the Covid-19 pandemic soon after ‘lockdown’ and ‘quarantine’. We quickly discovered that without the ability to take walks, socialize, and work, our well-being suffered. Health was suddenly more than just the state of our bodies – it also depended on our ability to engage in activities that matter to us.

Though this was a revelation to many, the World Health Organization (WHO) had already begun this rethinking of health. It created a new concept and assessment framework to capture the multi-dimensional nature of our everyday health experience, called ‘human functioning. 

“Despite its great promise, this new tool has not been implemented widely in healthcare and policy. Our team’s goal is to make it happen,” said Prof Gerold Stucki, a senior member of a research team at Swiss Paraplegic Research and the University of Lucerne, Switzerland.

In their article published in Frontiers in Science, Stucki and colleagues unveil an innovative framework for integrating the assessment and treatment of functioning into health and social systems. “We believe this approach can profoundly change health practice, education, research, and policy,” added Prof Jerome Bickenbach.   

Human functioning: the missing link between health and well-being

Human functioning augments the traditional biomedical approach by adding the ‘lived health’ dimension. This aspect of health reflects individuals’ capacity to engage in a range of activities, from eating independently to socializing and working. Since our biological and lived health are intertwined, this approach provides a more complete understanding of human health.

Mobility impairments are a clear example of why an assessment of functioning is important. A disabled person may have poor lived health in a physical environment that is not accessible. But their functioning can be enhanced through assistive devices and changes to the built environment.

“Functioning also clarifies how our health is linked to our well-being,” Prof Sara Rubinelli explained. “It isn’t just about the absence of disease, injury, or other physical issues, but also the ability to take part in daily life and achieve personal goals. Nurturing individual well-being on a large scale could truly transform our society, ultimately enhancing societal welfare.” 

Human functioning data complements morbidity and mortality

To achieve this vision, the team developed a multipronged strategy for implementing standardized assessment of functioning into health and social systems. The first step is to recognize functioning as the third major health indicator. 

“Morbidity and mortality are the two main indicators currently used to assess population health and the efficacy of policies and interventions,” said Cristiana Baffone. “While this strategy has brought us enormous benefits, it doesn’t encompass lived health. Recognizing functioning as the third main indictor will bridge this gap. Once we begin systematically collecting functioning data, we can use it to inform and guide public policy.”

The article explains that this approach can also advance the UN’s third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG3): ‘to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all’. Though SDG3 targets both health and well-being, its progress is assessed using mortality and morbidity data. Systematically tracking and analyzing human functioning data across populations can guide efforts to achieve the full vision of SDG3. 

Human functioning sciences: new field can fuel the functioning revolution

Integrating functioning into healthcare is a complex process requiring significant investment and involvement from healthcare providers, policymakers, and the public. One major issue raised by the authors is a general lack of awareness about the extensive potential benefits of this approach, which can be tackled by effective communication campaigns. They also highlight the need for a new generation of researchers, healthcare professionals, and policy entrepreneurs to form a ‘human functioning’ workforce. 

“We can facilitate this step by establishing a new scientific field called ‘human functioning sciences’. This field will integrate distinct disciplines to deepen our understanding of health and guide research, healthcare, and policy,” Stucki explained.

The challenges ahead may seem daunting, but rehabilitation is an example of a discipline where functioning has already been well-integrated, helping to define guidelines and driving technical developments.   

“Rehabilitation is an evolving success story that can help guide us through the functioning revolution,” said Bickenbach. “While we’re well on our way to resolving methodological challenges, large-scale implementation is still in its infancy. Societal economic investment is essential for realizing the promise of human functioning,” he concluded.

‘Human functioning’ complements morbidity and mortality to provide a holistic understanding of human health that goes beyond disease

‘Human functioning’ complements morbidity and mortality to provide a holistic understanding of human health that goes beyond disease

‘Human functioning’ complements morbidity and mortality to provide a holistic understanding of human health that goes beyond disease

CREDIT

Frontiers/Swiss Paraplegic Research and the University of Lucerne

JOURNAL

Frontiers in Science

DOI

10.3389/fsci.2023.1118512 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The human functioning revolution: implications for health systems and sciences

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

31-May-2023

SUPERNATURE

Plants can distinguish when touch starts and stops

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

 

VIDEO: A MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A SINGLE CELL OF A THALE CRESS PLANT IS TOUCHED BY A FINE GLASS ROD. WHEN THE TOUCH IS FIRST APPLIED (01:33) THE CELL SENDS A SLOW CALCIUM SIGNAL WAVE TO OTHER CELLS. WHEN THE TOUCH IS RELEASED, A FASTER WAVE IS CREATED (06:53). view more 

CREDIT: WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY, COPYRIGHT NATURE PLANTS

PULLMAN, Wash. –  Even without nerves, plants can sense when something touches them and when it lets go, a Washington State University-led study has found. 

In a set of experiments, individual plant cells responded to the touch of a very fine glass rod by sending slow waves of calcium signals to other plant cells, and when that pressure was released, they sent much more rapid waves. While scientists have known that plants can respond to touch, this study shows that plant cells send different signals when touch is initiated and ended.

“It is quite surprising how finely sensitive plants cells are—that they can discriminate when something is touching them. They sense the pressure, and when it is released, they sense the drop in pressure,” said Michael Knoblauch, WSU biological sciences professor and senior author of the study in the journal Nature Plants. “It’s surprising that plants can do this in a very different way than animals, without nerve cells and at a really fine level.”

Knoblauch and his colleagues conducted a set of 84 experiments on 12 plants using thale cress and tobacco plants that had been specially bred to include calcium sensors, a relatively new technology. After placing pieces of these plants under a microscope, they applied a slight touch to individual plant cells with a micro-cantilever, essentially a tiny glass rod about the size of a human hair. They saw many complex responses depending on the force and duration of the touch, but the difference between the touch and its removal was clear.

Within 30 seconds of the applied touch to a cell, the researchers saw slow waves of calcium ions, called cytosolic calcium, travelling from that cell through the adjacent plant cells, lasting about three to five minutes. Removal of the touch showed an almost instant set of more rapid waves that dissipated within a minute.

The authors believe these waves are likely due to the change in pressure inside the cell. Unlike animal cells with permeable membranes, plant cells also have strong cellular walls that cannot be easily breached, so just a light touch will temporarily increase pressure in a plant cell.

The researchers tested the pressure theory mechanically by inserting a tiny glass capillary pressure probe into a plant cell. Increasing and decreasing pressure inside the cell resulted in similar calcium waves elicited by the start and stop of a touch.

“Humans and animals sense touch through sensory cells. The mechanism in plants appears to be via this increase or decrease of the internal cell pressure,” said Knoblauch. “And it doesn't matter which cell it is. We humans may need nerve cells, but in plants, any cell on the surface can do this.”

Previous research has shown that when a pest like a caterpillar bites a plant leaf, it can initiate the plant’s defensive responses such as the release of chemicals that make leaves less tasty or even toxic to the pest. An earlier study also revealed that brushing a plant triggers calcium waves that activate different genes.

The current study was able to differentiate the calcium waves between touch and letting go, but how exactly the plant’s genes respond to those signals remains to be seen. With new technologies like the calcium sensors used in this study, scientists can start to untangle that mystery, Knoblauch said.

“In future studies, we have to trigger the signal in a different way than has been done before to know what signal, if touch or letting go, triggers downstream events,” he said.  

This study was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation. The international team included researchers from the Technical University of Denmark; Ludwig Maximilian Universitaet Muenchen and Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster in Germany; and University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as WSU.

Plant touch video 2 [VIDEO] | 

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JOURNAL

Nature Plants

DOI

10.1038/s41477-023-01418-9 

ARTICLE TITLE

Pavement cells distinguish touch from letting go

Light conveyed by the signal transmitting molecule sucrose controls growth of plant roots

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG

Plant growth is driven by light and supplied with energy through photosynthesis by green leaves. It is the same for roots that grow in the dark – they receive the products of photosynthesis, in particular sucrose, i.e. sugar, via the central transportation pathways of phloem. Dr. Stefan Kircher and Prof. Dr. Peter Schopfer from the University of Freiburg’s Faculty of Biology have now shown in experiments using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) that the sucrose not only guarantees the supply of carbohydrates to the roots, it also acts as a signal transmitter for the formation of light-dependent root architecture. It does this in two ways: firstly, sucrose directly guides elongation of the primary root. Secondly, the sucrose that is transported to the tip of the root then regulates the production of the plant hormone auxin. This hormone drives the rate of formation of new lateral roots, which along with elongation of the primary root is synchronised by the joint signal transmitter. “This enables the root growth to adapt to the current photosynthesis performance of the leaves as light and other environmental conditions change, for example on the change from day to night,” says Kircher.

Experimental evidence

To demonstrate that the sucrose produced through photosynthesis is the decisive signal transmitter, Kircher and Schopfer placed the plants in a room with light but with no carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air, thus making photosynthesis impossible. The outcome was that no more lateral roots were formed. This result was confirmed by another experiment in which the two biologists treated either the leaves or the roots in the dark with a solution of sucrose. In both approaches, lateral roots developed the same as in control plants which were exposed to light. “These results show that the production of sucrose in leaves is necessary for the formation of lateral roots. And it confirms the hypothesis that sucrose acts as a signal transmitter for light stimuli,” says Kircher.

Activation of auxin biosynthesis by sucrose signal

In earlier studies, researchers had already shown that the auxin produced in the roots from the amino acid tryptophan drives the rate of development of new lateral roots. Kircher and Schopfer have now shown how sucrose triggers this process. To do this, they placed the plants in a dark room for two days and carried out various experiments to discover their influence on the formation of lateral roots. Administering tryptophan to the roots at the same time as treating the leaves with sucrose had the greatest effect. By contrast, tryptophan had little effect if it was applied to the leaves or without sucrose at the roots. “These observations confirm that the sucrose produced through photosynthesis serves as a trigger for the synthesis of auxin,” says Kircher.

Summary:

• Original publication: Kircher, Stefan, Schopfer, Peter: Photosynthetic sucrose drives the lateral root clock in Arabidopsis seedlings. In: Current Biology 33, June 2023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.04.061
• Stefan Kircher and Peter Schopfer research at the Department of Molecular Plant Physiology in the University of Freiburg’s Faculty of Biology.
• The project was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG project no. 261041208).

Contact:
Office of University and Science Communications
University of Freiburg
Tel.: 0761/203-4302
email: kommunikation@zv.uni-freiburg.de

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JOURNAL

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2023.04.061 

PUBLIC SECRETS OF THE SPECTACLE

The secret to in-store displays: where to place discounted products relative to regularly priced products to maximize sales

News from the Journal of Marketing

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Researchers from University of Connecticut, Texas A&M University, University of Colorado at Boulder, and University of Florida published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines whether price promotions on some products differentially impact demand for other products depending on their relative locations within a display.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “The Negative and Positive Consequences of Placing Products Next to Promoted Products” and is authored by Christina Kan, Yan (Lucy) Liu, Donald R. Lichtenstein, and Chris Janiszewski.

Consumers select from a variety of competing products in multi-product displays. Some products are discounted while others in close proximity are regularly priced. For example, Costco offers items that are not regularly stocked at a reduced price to train shoppers to enter the store in search of “deals,” as if on a treasure hunt. Finding these deals exposes customers to proximal products in other categories, which allows Costco to capture sales from people not interested in the discounted product.

The key question is: Do price promotions on some products differentially impact demand for other products depending on their relative locations within a display? This new study concludes that the answer is yes.

The researchers say that “When the proximal items (i.e., those placed nearby) and distal items (i.e., those placed farther) are strong substitutes for the promoted item, we find that a price promotion decreases the sales of proximal products relative to distal products. This is known as a negative proximity effect. However, when the proximal and distal items are weak substitutes for the promoted item, the promoted product increases the sales of proximal products relative to distal products. This is known as a positive proximity effect. In this case, the proximal product benefits from the increased attention by virtue of being close to the promoted product.”

The research team finds evidence for these sales patterns across eight studies. In one study, they analyze yogurt sales at a retail grocer. When non-promoted products are strong substitutes for the promoted product, a 1% decrease in the price of the promoted product results in a .25% decrease in sales of proximal products, but there is no change in sales of distal products. However, when non-promoted products are weak substitutes for the promoted product, a 1% decrease in the price of the promoted product results in a .10% increase in sales of proximal products. Again, there is no change in sales for distal products.

Insights from the Studies

The promotion–proximity results provide three insights.

• It is often assumed that price promotions draw attention toward the promoted brand and away from all other brands. In contrast, these results show price promotions direct attention to the promoted brand and the brands that surround it (i.e., attention spills over).
• Prior research assumes that goal-directed consumers will search a product display so that all appropriate products enter a consideration set before the purchase decision is made. In contrast, this analysis indicates that a price promotion can increase (or decrease) the likelihood of a proximal (or distal) product entering the consumers’ consideration set.
• Prior research assumes multiple purchases come from a single consideration set.  In contrast, this research argues that consumers can search multiple locations in a product display, with each location generating a unique consideration set and purchase opportunity.

Opportunities for Marketing Managers

Understanding how attention spills over to proximal products creates several opportunities for marketing managers.

1. Managers may consider product subcategory boundaries as opportunities to exploit positive proximity effects. Consider butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies bordering each other on a shelf. Placing a border brand on price promotion should draw increased attention to a less substitutable proximal item and increase the probability of a positive proximity effect.
   
   Managers can take advantage of this to direct attention to full-priced higher margin brands. Taking this further, positive proximity effects may also occur for non-substitutes (e.g., refrigerated yogurt and refrigerated desserts).
    
2. Retailers commonly conceive of loss leaders (e.g., milk) as items used to increase exposure to other non-promoted product categories in the store (e.g., product categories they pass on the way to the dairy aisle). However, a loss leader can also be used to introduce customers to new products within a product category. For example, imagine discounting a product like almond milk and surrounding it with novel flavors/versions of non-promoted items (e.g., oat milk, soy milk) to induce trial of those new items. In this sense, price promotions benefit the promoted brand and also increase exposure to other high margin items in the product category.
    
3. Some products, such as wines on a shelf, are organized by price levels. For categories in which substitutability is defined by price, placing any item on sale would have a negative influence on proximal items. Because consumers have little expectation of which cabernets should be located next to each other, managers may place lower margin items proximal to price-promoted items during the promotion.

Full article and author contact information available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429231172111

About the Journal of Marketing 

The Journal of Marketing develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions useful to scholars, educators, managers, policy makers, consumers, and other societal stakeholders around the world. Published by the American Marketing Association since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline. Shrihari (Hari) Sridhar (Joe Foster ’56 Chair in Business Leadership, Professor of Marketing at Mays Business School, Texas A&M University) serves as the current Editor in Chief.
https://www.ama.org/jm

About the American Marketing Association (AMA) 

As the largest chapter-based marketing association in the world, the AMA is trusted by marketing and sales professionals to help them discover what is coming next in the industry. The AMA has a community of local chapters in more than 70 cities and 350 college campuses throughout North America. The AMA is home to award-winning content, PCM® professional certification, premiere academic journals, and industry-leading training events and conferences.
https://www.ama.org

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JOURNAL

Journal of Marketing

DOI

10.1177/00222429231172111 

ARTICLE TITLE

The Negative and Positive Consequences of Placing Products Next to Promoted Products

ARTICLE PUBLICATION 

Mapping the conflict between farming and biodiversity

Food production is the main cause of biodiversity loss.

Knowing where uses conflict with high priority conservation areas can help policymakers to act.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: THE MAP SHOWS THE LAND USE AND CONSERVATION PRIORITY INDEX FOR MAJOR AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES. THE GRID CELLS ARE COLOURED ACCORDING TO THE DOMINANT CROP GROWN, AND THE INTENSITY OF THE COLOUR, FROM LIGHTER TO DARKER SHADES, INDICATES THE CONSERVATION PRIORITY OF EACH CELL. view more 

CREDIT: GRAPHIC: HOANG ET AL. 2023

It’s well known that producing foods such as beef can have an outsized footprint when it comes to carbon emissions. But a new study shows that some of these same staples can have an equally huge effect when it comes to biodiversity losses.

One of the main problems, the study found, results when food production overlaps with areas that have been identified as having the highest conservation priority.

Food production remains the main cause of biodiversity loss.

“Food production remains the main cause of biodiversity loss,” said Keiichiro Kanemoto, an associate professor at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) in Kyoto, Japan and one of the paper’s senior authors. “However, there is a painful lack of systematic data on which products and which countries contribute the most to this loss. Our research combines information about agricultural land use with species habitats to identify which crops cause the most pressure on biodiversity.”

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, ranks which commodities are sourced from regions with high priority for conservation.  While previous studies have quantified the carbon, land, and water footprints of the agriculture industry, the threats to biodiversity and ecosystems from farming are poorly understood and thus often omitted. The new results are expected to assist with the formation of policies that protect biodiversity while preserving global food security.

The results have been made publicly available on Google Earth Engine, a cloud computing platform used for environmental analyses. The study covers 50 agricultural products sourced from 200 countries, and draws on farming data, a database of global supply chains, and new ecological models with conservation data for more than 7000 species to estimate the conservation value of different areas.

Beef, rice and soy biggest footprint

The international research team, with members from Norway, the Netherlands and Japan, divided agricultural areas into four tiers, based on their conservation priority, from lowest to highest. They then determined which individual agricultural commodities were produced in these different priority levels.

The researchers found that about one-third of all farming occurs in areas that were considered highest conservation priority. One pattern that emerged was that some staple commodities, such as beef, rice, and soybeans, tended to be produced in high conservation priority areas. At the same time, other substitutes, such as barley and wheat, were predominantly sourced from lower risk areas.

“A surprising takeaway for me was how much the impact of the same crop can vary based on where it is sourced from,” said Daniel Moran, a senior scientist at the Climate and Environmental Institute NILU and a research professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Industrial Ecology Programme who was also a co-author of the study.

Beef and soybeans, for example, are grown in high conservation priority areas in Brazil but not in North America. Similarly, wheat is grown in lower conservation priority areas in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe.

International trade a factor

Coffee and cocoa are primarily grown in high conservation priority areas in equatorial nations, but these cash crops are largely consumed in richer nations like the United States and members of the European Union, the researchers’ model showed. At the global level, China, with its high demand for multiple commodities, has the biggest influence on food production in high priority conservation areas.

The study also illustrated how different nations can have sharply different biodiversity food footprints. The United States, EU, China, and Japan all depend heavily on imports  to satisfy their demand for beef and dairy. In Japan, more than one-quarter of the beef and dairy consumed in that country comes from high conservation priority areas. For the other regions, that number is closer to just ten per cent.

“That suggests there are opportunities to change the biodiversity footprint of food consumption by simply changing our sourcing of food products” said Kanemoto.

While it’s well known that cattle, soybean, and palm oil are farmed in high conservation priority areas, the study found that other commodities, including corn, sugarcane, and rubber, are also problematic and deserve more attention from policymakers.

Effects of climate change

The changing climate is expected to alter both cropping patterns and available habitats. The research team used their model to look at different scenarios to see how the interaction between wild biodiversity and farming would change under predicted 2070 temperatures.

Species are likely to colonize new territories in a warmer world, which could result in the emergence of new high conservation priority areas or mitigate conflicts in current conservation hotspots.

While the researchers did not produce a detailed map forecasting future conflicts between agriculture and conservation, the paper’s supporting information offers some estimates of future competition under a range of scenarios.

“Our spatial approach is a valuable complementary method with other standard techniques to evaluate the impact agriculture has on biodiversity. The knowledge gained from our study should help reduce the trade-off many nations associate with agriculture production and environmental protection,” said Kanemoto. “It fills in a big missing piece in the footprint of food.”

“Our lifestyles are causing alarming damage to the atmosphere and water supplies. Farmers and governments worldwide are seeking policies that sustain prosperity while minimizing irreversible harm to the environment. Similar sustainable development policies are needed for agriculture. The calculation of detailed footprints for food and other farmed commodities is crucial to support these policies,” Moran said.

The results can be viewed in an interactive map at  https://agriculture.spatialfootprint.com/biodiversity

Reference: Nguyen Tien Hoang ,Oliver Taherzadeh, Haruka Ohashi, Yusuke Yonekurada, Shota Nishijima, Masaki Yamabe, Tetsuya Matsui, Hiroyuki Matsuda, Daniel Moran and Keiichiro Kanemoto. Mapping potential conflicts between global agriculture and terrestrial conservation. Proceedings of the National Academies of Science Vol. 120, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2208376120

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2208376120 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Mapping potential conflicts between global agriculture and terrestrial conservation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-May-2023

AUSTRALIA

Rio Tinto to invest $395 million in Pilbara desalination plant

Reuters | June 1, 2023 |

Rio Tinto’s Cape Lambert port facilities in Western Australia. 

Image: Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto on Friday announced plans to invest $395 million in a seawater desalination plant in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, to supply water for the company’s coastal operations in the area.


The plant will have an initial nominal capacity of four gigalitres annually, with the potential to increase it to eight gigalitres in the future.


Construction is expected to start in 2024 and the facility will be operational and producing water in 2026.

The world’s biggest iron ore miner has been pouring money into the mineral-rich Pilbara region since last year. In November, it announced plans to invest a further $600 million in renewable energy assets in an effort to halve its carbon emissions by 2030.

The desalination plant is expected to create 300 jobs.

(By Navya Mittal; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

Renewable energy capacity additions to hit record: IEA

Issued on: 01/06/2023 - 

Paris (AFP) – Renewable power capacity will grow by a record number this year as high fossil fuel prices and energy security concerns fuelled the deployment of solar and wind systems, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

Global additions of renewable energy capacity are expected to rise by 107 gigawatts to more than 440 GW in 2023, the IEA said in an updated report on the sector.

"The world is set to add a record-breaking amount of renewables to electricity systems –- more than the total power capacity of Germany and Spain combined," IEA executive director Fatih Birol said in a statement.

The world's total renewable electricity capacity is expected to surge to 4,500 GW next year, equal to the power output of China and the United States together, the agency added.

China will cement its place as the main driver of growth in the sector, accounting for 55 percent of global additions this year and the next.

The IEA said it raised its forecast for renewable capacity additions in Europe by 40 percent as countries stepped up efforts to seek alternatives to Russian natural gas following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Newly installed solar and wind capacity is estimated to have save EU electricity consumers 100 billion euros ($107 billion) between 2021-2023 by displacing costlier fossil fuels, according to the agency, which advises developed nations.

"The global energy crisis has shown renewables are critical for making energy supplies not just cleaner but also more secure and affordable," Birol said.

Solar additions will account for two-thirds of this year's growth.

Solar photovoltaic plants are growing while higher electricty prices are driving growth in small-scale rooftop system that are "more financially attractive".

Increased policy support in key European markets such as Germany, Italy and the Netherlands is also fuelling the growth.

Wind power is forecast to rebound this year with 70 percent year-on-year growth after a sluggish two-year period, the IEA said.

The surge is mainly due to the completion of projects that had been delayed by Covid restrictions in China and supply chain problems in the United States and Europe.

© 2023 AFP