Friday, May 12, 2023

UConn researcher explores impact of recreational homes on agricultural land use

Research from agricultural economists explores why some farm land goes idle

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

Charles Towe, associate professor of agricultural and resource economics in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, started noticing a change in land use in Columbia County, New York where his family farms.

Towe saw a lot of potential agricultural land in New York state going unused. He also personally knew farmers who couldn’t find land in their area. This led him to explore this trend of decreased agricultural productivity.

“I was trying to solve the problem of, how do we have hundreds and hundreds of acres of land idle, and farmers looking for land saying, ‘I can’t find any land around,’” Towe says.

Towe recently published his findings in Land Economics.

He found that of the 800 agricultural parcels in Columbia County, an area near the Catskill Mountains, about a quarter were owned by non-residents. Of the non-residents – people whose primary address is somewhere other than their property in Columbia County – the most significant population came from New York City, which is about two hours away by car.

While there may be non-resident owners from other areas, Towe focused his study on New Yorkers to understand their impact on land use in his community.

“It appears that there is a preference for the amenities that an ag parcel here provides for second homeowners coming out of the city,” Towe says.

Since 2001, nonresident ownership of farmland in Columbia County increased by 22.7%. Part of this upward trend may be related to the use value taxation credit New York state offers. The credit, which has existed for decades, allows property owners to receive a break on their property taxes if they use part of their land for agricultural purposes.

However, there are few stipulations about what this use must look like. While the credit does benefit farmers, many non-resident owners use part of their land to produce low-value hay for animal bedding, but not a lot else. Others may rent out their land to local farmers as a way to receive the credit.

Looking at two USDA databases on land use records from the past decade, Towe found that when non-residents buy agricultural land in this area, 10-11% of the land is removed from the agricultural sector altogether. An additional 10-11% is used for low-value hay.

In 2019, Towe completed a similar study for the Connecticut Department of Agriculture to evaluate Connecticut’s Public Act 490 which provides tax breaks for agricultural land. The Act was adopted in 1963 to help preserve the state’s farm, forest, and open land.

Just like in New York, Towe found that, by far, the most common crop grown on farmlands that the owner rented out was hay, around 40%.

“At the end of the day, if you want to buy land and use it in your way, that’s your right,” Towe says. “But perhaps certain pro-agricultural tax policies should be revisited to verify that these are not being abused.”

Towe says this is the “first log on the stack” of uncovering the questions surrounding land use change with non-resident owners and the costs and benefits to the local community.

“There’s a lot happening here that’s kind of hard to put a finger on,” Towe says.

The next study Towe is conducting will look at data from short-terms vacation rentals in the area. Local attitudes often see these types of rentals as detrimental to the local community. But the full picture is likely more complicated as additional rental income makes more expensive homes more affordable to residents, and they bring tourist spending to the area.

“We’re trying to make an economic link between the urban and rural communities because the country feels like it needs it,” Towe says. “I think the takeaway from this is we’re really trying to say, ‘What are the impacts, what are the positives and negatives of being in this second home market.'”

JOURNAL

Land Economics

DOI

10.3368/le.090420-0140R1

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The Impact of Recreational Homes on Agricultural Land Use

Therapy sessions benefit mothers, children in homeless shelter

Pilot study shows reductions in stress symptoms

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Short-term therapy sessions with parents and their children in homeless shelters could help improve parenting skills and reduce parental stress and children’s post-traumatic stress symptoms, according to a pilot study published by the American Psychological Association.

Researchers from Florida International University partnered with Lotus House in Miami, one of the largest women’s homeless shelters in the U.S. The study included 144 families (mother and one child) with children from 18 months to 5 years of age. The research was published online in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Shelter staff worked daily with the families to build trust with the mothers – many of whom weren’t seeking therapy – and 99% of them agreed to take part in the study, said lead researcher Paulo Graziano, PhD, a professor of psychology at Florida International University.

“We’re excited to find that evidence-based parenting interventions can be implemented within a shelter setting with wonderful benefits to the mothers and children,” he said. “I think more community-university partnerships are essential towards addressing the mental health needs of our most vulnerable families and children in a setting where they normally wouldn’t receive it.”

More than 2 million children in the U.S. experience homelessness every year, and homeless children face heightened challenges from poverty, traumatic experiences, mental illness and behavioral problems. Previous research has also found that homelessness is associated with increased parental frustration and negative parenting behaviors, including aggression. Those issues can be exacerbated by the parents’ chronic medical, mental health or substance use issues and their own histories of trauma.

Graziano and his team trained Lotus House staff to provide two types of evidence-based therapy to the mothers and their children in weekly sessions over three or four months. Half of the participants received Parent-Child Interaction Therapy while the other half received Child-Parent Psychotherapy.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy includes positive parenting techniques to reduce critical statements and negative interactions with children during observed play sessions. Child-Parent Psychotherapy uses play and language to help identify and address traumatic triggers, provide emotional support and offer assistance with daily living issues.

Mothers in both therapy groups reported reductions in their stress and their children’s post-traumatic stress symptoms. The mothers also made more positive statements during observed play sessions. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy also helped reduce children's behavior problems so may be more effective in a shelter setting, the study noted.

With adequate training and supervision, homeless shelter staff may not need mental health degrees to provide effective therapy, Graziano said. His team and Lotus House are working on a larger randomized trial to see if the successes from this pilot study can be replicated at other homeless shelters. He also hopes that other researchers will conduct their own studies.

Constance Collins, president of the Sundari Foundation, which operates Lotus House, said the project has produced dramatic results.

“It was a game changer that transformed homelessness into a window of opportunity for our children," she said. “We’re sharing our experiences with other homeless shelters across the country with hopes that critically needed therapy will become more available to homeless parents and their children.”

Article: “Early Intervention for Families Experiencing Homelessness: A Pilot Randomized Trial Comparing Two Parenting Programs,” Paulo Graziano, PhD, Jamie A. Spiegel, PhD, and Timothy Hayes, PhD, Florida International University; Emily Arcia, PhD, Emily Arcia Consulting Co.; and the Sundari Foundation-Lotus House. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, published online May 11, 2023.

Contact: Paulo Graziano, PhD, may be contacted at pgrazian@fiu.edu.

JOURNAL

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Early Intervention for Families Experiencing Homelessness: A Pilot Randomized Trial Comparing Two Parenting Programs

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-May-2023

Distorted perspectives: middle class and wealth

New survey of the Konstanz Inequality Barometer shows: The majority of the German population underestimates or overestimates their prosperity. As a result, many people simply think of them-selves as middle class.

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF KONSTANZ

Big earners as well as low earners see themselves as part of the middle class, as do most people in Germany – regardless of their actual wealth. In a representative survey called Inequality Barometer, researchers from the Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality" at the University of Konstanz asked Germans about the distribution of wealth – and where they see themselves. Perceptions are highly skewed, especially in the area of income and wealth inequality. As in the first survey in 2020, most respondents classify themselves as middle class and thus misjudge their financial situation compared with the population as a whole.

Perceptions are particularly skewed with regard to wealth inequality: Although wealth is distributed even more unequally than income in favour of the upper class, few Germans perceive it that way. Sharon Baute, co-author of the study, explains: "In the politically charged debates about inheritance and wealth tax, for example, it becomes apparent: Many from the middle class seem to believe such taxes apply to them personally. They underestimate how much wealthier others are." Misperceptions like these make it less likely that people support stronger redistributive policies.

One of the recommendations the authors make in their policy paper is raising the public awareness of the unequal wealth distribution. The paper is available on the website of the think thank "Das Progressive Zentrum".

The Inequality Barometer
The Inequality Barometer is a representative online survey first conducted in Germany in 2020. It examines individual perceptions of inequality and its political impact. The second wave of the survey, conducted in the autumn of 2022, focussed on the perceptions of income and wealth inequality, on the question of how people view opportunities for future generations as well as on the influence of these perceptions on political attitudes. The data are collected every two years and thus make it possible to observe long-term inequality trends in Germany.

Key facts

Policy paper: Marius R. Busemeyer, Nanna Lauritz Schönhage, Sharon Baute, Luna Bellani, Guido Schwerdt (2023): Gloomy prospects: The Konstanz Inequality Barometer shows that inequality is perceived to have increased. Policy Paper 12: Inequality Barometer – Inequality and Social Mobility. 11 May 2023.
Data collection: The survey data were collected as part of an online survey of German residents over the age of 18. The survey took place between 14 November and 2 December 2022. A total of 6,319 respondents participated.
Inequality Barometer project team in the Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality" at the University of Konstanz:
- Professor Marius R. Busemeyer is a professor of political science in the Department of Politics and Public Administration and speaker of the Cluster of Excellence.
- Nanna Lauritz Schönhage is a political scientist and postdoctoral researcher at the Cluster of Excellence.
- Sharon Baute is a junior professor of comparative social policy in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz and contact person for the Inequality Barometer.
- Luna Bellani is an applied microeconomist. She is a lecturer at the Institute of Economics, Ulm University, and research associate at the Cluster of Excellence.
- Guido Schwerdt is a professor in the Department of Economics and principal investigator at the Cluster of Excellence.

How love, health, and neighborhood intersect for Black Americans

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

August Jenkins — IMAGE: AUGUST JENKINS, POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND FAMILY STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. view more
CREDIT: COLLEGE OF ACES

URBANA, Ill. — Romantic relationships and neighborhood quality are both important predictors of mental and emotional wellbeing. But the larger societal context also influences how these factors affect individuals. A new study from the University of Illinois looks at the intersection of relationships, neighborhood, and mental health for Black Americans.

“We know romantic relationship functioning is associated with mental health outcomes. But a lot of this work has focused on white Americans and less is understood about such connections for Black Americans. And there’s reason to think these might be unique,” says August Jenkins, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at U of I. Jenkins is the paper’s lead author.

Mental and emotional health are also impacted by socioecological and neighborhood factors. And because residential context is one of the most striking examples of structural racism in the U.S., Jenkins notes, limited access to better neighborhoods and neighborhood resources can contribute to mental health disparities for Black Americans.

“When we look at the effects of racism, we often focus on individual experiences of discrimination and only consider the interpersonal-level factors. But the neighborhood context is very salient for Black Americans for multiple reasons. It has a long, historical legacy,” she says.

Jenkins analyzed data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, a longitudinal epidemiological study of health and aging that includes assessments of psychological factors. Using data from MIDUS’s second and third wave, collected in 2004-2006 and 2013-2015, she included participants who identified as Black or African American, and who were in a romantic relationship at the first time point.

One of Jenkins’ main findings was a significant effect of neighborhood quality on mental health for both male and female participants. “People living in better-quality neighborhoods showed lower levels of negative affect, or mood, and higher levels of positive affect 10 years later, even when accounting for their initial levels of emotional health a decade prior. This really speaks to the powerful effect of the community you're in and the amount of stress or support that you might get from your neighborhood,” she notes.

Surprisingly, the researchers found no overall effect of romantic relationships on mental wellbeing. Jenkins says this may be due to the study’s focus on emotional affect rather than depressive symptoms or timespan between the first and second wave of data.

However, there was a significant interaction between relationship functioning and neighborhood quality for Black men, but not for women. Specifically, men showed more emotional distress if they reported better romantic relationship functioning but poorer neighborhood quality 10 years earlier.

“The way we interpret that finding is that Black men who are in good relationships want to provide the best for their partners. But they may have ambient stress that is signaling to them they're not safe or maybe not living up to the ideal of protecting and providing for their family, or that is interfering with their attempts to do so, which is distressing,” she says.

Research on neighborhoods and mental health often focuses on the effects for women and older adults, who tend to feel more vulnerable to potential safety threats, Jenkins explains. But there is increasing evidence highlighting that Black men are also particularly sensitive to environmental stressors and neighborhood context. Although the link between relationship functioning and emotional health did not vary by neighborhood quality for Black women, Jenkins notes that they may still experience the effects of their neighborhood indirectly through their romantic partners.

The results indicate the importance of attending to broader ecological and intersectional factors when addressing structural racism and utilizing strength-based perspectives to highlight opportunities for resilience, Jenkins notes.

“The neighborhood context is an important place to start. And intervening at that level might have major mental health impacts for Black Americans,” she concludes. “From a policy perspective, it motivates additional efforts to remediate disadvantage and invest in neighborhood beautification and elevation. And it also is encouraging because individuals and neighborhoods can exercise their own agency by investing in themselves, strengthening community social ties, safety resources, and physical environment.”

The paper, “Love, Health, and the ‘Hood: An Examination of Romantic Relationship Adjustment and Perceived Neighborhood Quality as Predictors of Partnered Black Americans’ Long-Term Psychological Health,” is published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science [DOI: 10.1037/abn0000821]. Authors are August Jenkins, Steffany Fredman, Alyssa Gamaldo, Valarie King, and David Almeida.

This study was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities grant F31MD015215 to August I. C. Jenkins, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network and National Institute on Aging Grants P01-AG020166, U19-AG051426, and R01 AG019239, grants KL2 TR002015 and UL1 TR002014 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and the Karl R. Fink and Diane Wendle Fink Early Career Professorship for the Study of Families.

JOURNAL

Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science

DOI

10.1037/abn0000821

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Love, Health, and the ‘Hood: An Examination of Romantic Relationship Adjustment and Perceived Neighborhood Quality as Predictors of Partnered Black Americans’ Long-Term Psychological Health

Weight discrimination linked to views on poverty

New academic study finds two issues are often connected in the minds of UK adults

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY

A new study has discovered that people who believe individuals are to blame for living in poverty are more likely to oppose laws aimed at preventing weight discrimination – suggesting some UK adults think the two issues are connected.

Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) canvassed almost 400 individuals in the UK aged between 18 and 77, split equally between men and women, and the results have been published in the journal Body Image.

Participants were asked to rate their agreement or disagreement with a series of statements assessing their perspective of poverty, such as the extent of their belief that people living in poverty are “personally deficient”, as well as assessing their views on the causes of obesity and prejudice towards people who are larger-bodied.

Researchers also recorded responses to 15 suggested policies and laws, such as “it should be illegal to fire a qualified employee because of their body weight”, or that “schools should have anti-bullying policies that protect students from being bullied about their weight”.

Among both women and men, the researchers found that a stronger belief that individuals are responsible for living in poverty was significantly associated with lower support for weight-related anti-discrimination policies and laws.

They also found that a stronger belief that individuals are responsible for living in poverty was associated with holding stigmatising or prejudicial views on weight, and greater prejudice toward larger-bodied individuals.

Lead author Viren Swami, Professor of Social Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, said: “Beliefs about weight don’t occur in a vacuum. In this study, we wanted to find out how broader social and political understandings shape beliefs about weight-related discrimination.

“The results from our study suggest that attitudes toward poverty may be a barrier to bringing in anti-discrimination laws and policies towards protecting those who are larger-bodied. Any attempts to combat weight-related stigmatisation might also need to challenge assumptions and beliefs about the nature and meaning of poverty.

“Being larger-bodied is often conflated with living in poverty, and our study has shown that certain views on poverty might be connected with the stigmatisation, discrimination, and bias against larger-bodied individuals.

“Beliefs about poverty tend to originate in childhood and adolescence, and intervention efforts targeting young people may be particularly effective in shifting both attitudes about the poor and larger-bodied individuals.”

JOURNAL

Body Image

DOI

10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.04.005

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Support for weight-related anti-discrimination laws and policies: Modelling the role of attitudes toward poverty alongside weight stigma, causal attributions about weight, and prejudice

Vast majority of tweets about obesity are negative, study finds

Only 8.25% of 25,000-plus tweets analysed contained positive sentiments

Reports and Proceedings

EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF OBESITY

**Note: the release below is a special early release from the European Congress on Obesity (ECO, Dublin, 17-20 May). Please credit the conference if you use this story**

New research to be presented at next week’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Dublin, Ireland (17-20 May), has found that tweets about obesity are predominantly negative.

The analysis, by researchers in Switzerland and the UK, also found that Twitter activity spiked around the time of significant political events.

These included comments about Donald Trump’s weight when he was US president and the launch of an obesity campaign in the UK by Boris Johnson.

“Obesity can lead to serious physical, mental, and social health problems and its prevalence is increasing worldwide among people of all age groups,” says researcher Dr Jorge Correia, of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Nutrition and Therapeutic Patient Education, WHO Collaborating Centre, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

“Understanding the public’s attitudes to, and perceptions of, obesity is key to the formulation of effective health policies, prevention strategies, and treatment approaches.

“In this study, we have leveraged the wealth of information available on Twitter to explore the sentiments of the public, celebrities and other influential people and important organisations such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”

Open-source software (the Tweepy library in Python) was used to download obesity-related tweets from Twitter. Cutting-edge AI methods were then used to perform sentiment analysis and classify the tweets into positive, negative and neutral sentiments. Modelling techniques were used to identify the major topics being discussed.

25,580 tweets about obesity that were posted between December 2019 to December 2021 were extracted and analysed.

The sentiment analysis revealed a significantly higher percentage of tweets (72.97%) represented negative sentiments, followed by neutral (18.78%) and positive (8.25%).

Spikes in Twitter activity were associated with significant political events such as when the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the US, Nancy Pelosi, described the then president, Donald Trump, as “morbidly obese” (May 19, 2020).

A total of 1,003 tweets were posted on this topic over several days. Around 94% of the tweets were negative in sentiment.

Dr Correia says: “The negative portrayal of obesity by influential politicians and celebrities in may increase stigma against people living with obesity, and also harm public health by spreading misinformation.”

The launch of an obesity strategy in the UK on July 27, 2020, by the then prime minister Boris Johnson, attracted a lot of criticism from the public. Around 73.9% of the tweets about the campaign during this spike held negative sentiments.

The 25,580 tweets included in the analysis covered 243 topics. These included childhood obesity, COVID-19 vaccination, racism and high obesity rates among minorities, smoking, illicit substance use and alcohol consumption among people with obesity, environmental risk factors for obesity (such as unavailability of green spaces), polycystic ovary syndrome and surgical treatments.

The largest number of tweets related to the issue of COVID-19 vaccination for people with obesity, followed by Nancy Pelosi’s comments on Donald Trump.

The third largest group of tweets wasn’t made up of tweets from the public but of tweets from research teams about their work on obesity. Racism towards Black people was the fourth most tweeted topic.

In addition, negative tweets often talked about increased hospitalisations and death due to COVID-19 among people with obesity and about how people living with obesity are responsible for their weight.

The researchers say that their results emphasise the need to view obesity through a holistic lens.

Dr Correia explains: “We need investments in various aspects of healthcare for obesity in order to achieve better health outcomes for the population. This includes improving health information regarding obesity, promoting awareness and reducing stigma, as well as development of effective interventions.

“Campaigns should be run on platforms like Twitter to improve the information about obesity available to the public. This could be done with partnerships between the social media platforms, public and third sector organisations.”

Dr Jorge Correia, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Nutrition and Therapeutic Patient Education, Unit of Therapeutic Patient Education, WHO Collaborating Centre, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. E) jorgecesar.correia@hcuge.ch

Alternative contact: Tony Kirby in the ECO Media Centre. T) +44 7834 385827 E) tony@tonykirby.com

Notes to editors:

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

This press release is based on abstract PO2.126 at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO). The material has been peer reviewed by the congress selection committee. There is no full paper at this stage.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-May-2023

Research pinpoints the time of year and hour when people have the strongest suicidal thoughts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

New research has identified the month when people have the strongest suicidal thoughts, and that these thoughts occur a few months before the peak of suicide behaviours in spring/early summer. It also showed the daily peak in suicidal thought is between 4-5 am.

Most people assume suicide rates will be highest in winter, yet spring/early summer is when suicidal behaviours peak and this finding has baffled researchers since first identified.

Research from the University of Nottingham’s School of Psychology, led in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam and Harvard University, has study has examined the seasonal paths of suicidal thoughts and identified when suicidal thoughts peak during the year and also what time of day these thoughts are the worst. The findings have been published in Nature Translational Psychiatry.

Over a period of six years, responses were collected from over 10,000 people in the UK, US and Canada who completed questionnaires and tasks about their moods and thoughts and ideations around suicide and self-harm using the Project Implicit Health Database (PIH).

The researchers, Brian O’Shea and René Freichel, show that suicidal thoughts are, in fact, highest in winter (December), and they developed a conceptual model for why suicidal behaviour takes a few months to reach a ‘tipping point’. They also found that the hours of 4am-6am are when people are likely the most vulnerable to taking their own lives. Additionally, they found a general increase in negative self-harm cognitions across the six-year period of the study.

Dr Brian O’Shea from the University of Nottingham led the study and explains: “It is well documented that winter is the time when people with mental health problems may struggle with worsening mood and depression, indeed Seasonal Affective Disorder is a recognised issue related to the change in season that affects many people’s mental health. So, it may come as a surprise that spring, a time when you would assume people’s mood lifts, is actually the time of year when people are most at risk of taking their own lives. The reasons for this are complex, but our research shows that suicidal thoughts and mood are the worst in December and the best in June. Between these two points, there is a heightened risk of suicidal behaviour, and we feel this is occurring because the gradual improvements in their mood and energy may enable them to plan and engage in a suicide attempt. The relative comparison between the self and others’ mood improving at a perceived greater rate are complementary possibilities that need further testing.”

Online tasks were created to examine the temporal dynamics of explicit and implicit self-harm cognitions, with explicit cognition examined via direct questions about mood, suicide and self-harm using a standard 1-5 scale. Implicit cognition was explored with a reaction time task where people were required to sort words relating to the self in real-time with death and life words.

The respondents in the sample were from three groups: (1) past suicide attempters; (2) suicide ideation and/or non-suicidal self-injury; (3) no previous self-harm, suicidal thoughts, or behaviours). The researchers found a general increase of negative self-harm cognitions across the six years and seasonality effects for mood and desire to die, particularly among those who previously made a suicide attempt.

The findings show a latency between the peak of explicit and implicit suicide cognition in winter and the peak in suicide attempts and suicide deaths in spring. Explicit suicide cognition which peaks in December preceded implicit self-harm associations, which peaks in February. Both these peaks precede the peak of suicide behaviour in spring/early summer. Similar lagged effects were observed in a 24-hour period, with explicit suicidal cognition and mood peaking at 4-5 am and implicit cognition lagging this peak.

Dr O’Shea adds: “This study is the first to look at temporal trends around mood and self-harm thoughts on such a large scale and really pinpoints times when intervention could be most beneficial.”

JOURNAL

Translational Psychiatry

DOI

10.1038/s41398-023-02434-1

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Suicidality and mood: the impact of trends, seasons, day of the week, and time of day on explicit and implicit cognitions among an online community sample

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-May-2023

98% of TikTok videos promote vaping, putting teens at risk: Study

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CURTIN UNIVERSITY

New Curtin University research has found TikTok’s policies on the promotion of vaping are frequently violated, putting the social media platform’s predominantly young users at potential risk of e-cigarette exposure and use.

Lead researcher Professor Jonine Jancey, from the Curtin School of Population Health said the findings highlighted the dangers of relying on social media platforms to develop and enforce their own policies around content.

“Our study explored how e-cigarettes are promoted on TikTok, to assess the effectiveness of the platform’s own ‘drugs, controlled substances, alcohol and tobacco policy’,” Professor Jancey said.

“The sheer amount of potentially harmful content being fed to young people on TikTok shows self-regulation is failing.

“Of the 264 videos related to e-cigarettes that we studied and which had a total of 2.5 million views, 97.7 per cent portrayed them positively, and these posts received 98.7 per cent of the total views and 98.2 per cent of the total likes. These used humour, music, shared vaping tricks and referred to a ‘vaping community’, supporting the normalisation of these products.

“Sixty-nine of the posts (26.1 per cent) we reviewed violated TikTok’s content policy by promoting these products for purchase. This included videos containing details on how and where to purchase e-cigarette products, links to online retailers and other social media accounts for purchasing products and offers such as ‘buy three, get one free’ and giveaways.”

Professor Jancey said federal regulations should be tightened to ensure penalties are enforced for both content creators and social media platforms that breach policies or Government advertising laws.

“It seems there are no major consequences for those who do not follow TikTok guidelines and violate content policy. Social media platforms can decide the consequences for breaches of their policies, but they have a clear financial incentive not to punish people who breach their policies,” Professor Jancey said.

“Government regulations that captures e-cigarette advertising, promotion and sponsorship, including on social media must be enforced. These should include requiring social media platforms to report on how they are ensuring these regulations are upheld.”

Co-author and Professor of Internet Studies Tama Leaver from Curtin’s School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry said because the videos are typically made by young people for young people, they are particularly powerful.

“This is essentially a form of peer-to-peer promotion where young people see their friends or celebrities portraying vaping in a positive way,” Professor Leaver said.

"In addition, some vaping content is posted by influencers who may actually be paid by the e-cigarette industry to promote their products, although this is not disclosed and young people watching these videos may not even know they are being advertised to.”

Published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the research is titled ‘Promotion of e-cigarettes on TikTok and regulatory considerations’ and is available online here.

JOURNAL

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

DOI

10.3390/ijerph20105761

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Content analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Promotion of e-cigarettes on TikTok and regulatory considerations

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-May-2023

Substantial racial inequalities despite frequent health care contact found in treatment for opioid use disorder

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Key points:

In a national study of Medicare beneficiaries with disability and active opioid use disorder (OUD) symptoms, White patients received and filled prescriptions for medications to treat OUD up to 80% more frequently than Black patients and up to 25% more frequently than Hispanic patients in the six months following a high-risk OUD-related event such as an overdose or infection

Across racial groups, patients visited health care providers a similar number of times in the six months post OUD event—indicating that disparities in treatment do not stem from disparities in seeking care

Boston, MA—In the wake of an opioid-related event such as an overdose, infection, or detox admission, White patients received medication for opioid use disorder (OUD) up to 80% more frequently than Black patients and up to 25% more frequently than Hispanic patients, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Across racial groups, patients made a similar number of visits to health care providers in the six months following such an event—indicating that disparities in treatment are not explained by low contact with care.

“Opioid overdoses are rising faster in the Black population than in any other racial group: In 2021, they surpassed overdose rates in the White population for the first time in decades. And rates of overdose in the Hispanic population have recently risen by 40%,” said lead author Michael Barnett, associate professor of health policy and management. “We need to understand barriers to obtaining life-saving addiction treatment for minority populations to address this huge demographic shift and public health crisis.”

The study will be published in the May 11, 2023 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

While racial disparities in addiction treatment have been identified by previous studies, little of this research examined the full range of medications for OUD or accounted for non-recommended medications like opioid analgesics and benzodiazepines, both of which are associated with substantial risk for OUD patients. To fill in these gaps, researchers pulled a random 40% sample of Medicare beneficiaries with disability—a group of Americans among the most affected by OUD—who experienced at least one acute OUD-related event between 2016 and 2019. Using the Medicare claims, researchers observed 25,904 OUD-related events—15.2% of which occurred among Black patients, 8.1% among Hispanic patients, and 76.7% among White patients.

In 180 days following these events, Black patients received and filled a prescription for buprenorphine, a lifesaving therapy for OUD, 12.7% of the time; Hispanic patients, 18.7% of the time; and White patients, 23.3% of the time. Naloxone, a drug for reversing overdoses that has few restrictions on its distribution (in contrast to buprenorphine), followed the same pattern: Black patients received and filled a prescription after 14.4% of OUD events; Hispanic patients, 20.7%; and White patients, 22.9%. In a follow-up analysis using data from 2020 to 2021, researchers found that these differences were not explained by differing access to methadone by racial/ethnic group. Black patients received and filled these prescriptions after 8.3% of OUD events; Hispanic patients after 11.2% of OUD events; and White patients after 8.6% of OUD events.

Despite well-known and substantial risks, prescriptions for opioid analgesics and benzodiazepines were received and filled frequently. Prescriptions for opioid analgesic were received and filled after 23% of OUD-related events regardless of race. But prescriptions for benzodiazepines were received and filled by Black patients 23.4% of the time, by Hispanic patients 29.6% of the time, and by White patients 37.1% of the time.

“Skyrocketing rates of overdoses in minority groups are unlikely to shift without a major overhaul in the addiction treatment system,” said Barnett. “Addressing the overdose crisis and racial disparities in addiction will likely require community-specific interventions that engage with minority populations and the clinicians who serve them to reduce stigma and bolster trust.”

Ellen Meara, professor of health economics and policy at Harvard Chan School, was a co-author.

Funding came from National Institute on Drug Abuse grants R01 DA049757, R01 DA048533, and P30 DA035772 and National Institute on Aging grant K23 AG058806.

“Racial inequality in receipt of medications for opioid use disorder,” Michael L. Barnett, Ellen Meara, Terri Lewinson, Brianna Hardy, Deanna Chyn, Moraa Onsando, Haiden A. Huskamp, Ateev Mehrotra, Nancy E. Morden, New England Journal of Medicine, May 11, 2023, doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa2212412

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Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people’s lives—not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan School teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America’s oldest professional training program in public health.

JOURNAL

New England Journal of Medicine

DOI

10.1056/NEJMsa2212412

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Racial inequality in receipt of medications for opioid use disorder

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-May-2023

Impacts of YouTube on loneliness and mental health

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY

Frequent users of YouTube have higher levels of loneliness, anxiety, and depression according to researchers from the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP).

Dr Luke Balcombe and Emeritus Professor Diego De Leo from Griffith University’s School of Applied Psychology and AISRAP sought to understand both the positive and negative impacts of the world’s most used streaming platform on mental health.

They found the most negatively affected individuals were those under 29 years of age, or who regularly watched content about other people’s lives.

Lead author Dr Luke Balcombe said the development of parasocial relationships between content creators and followers could be cause for concern, however some neutral or positive instances of creators developing closer relationships with their followers also occurred.

“These online ‘relationships’ can fill a gap for people who, for example, have social anxiety, however it can exacerbate their issues when they don't engage in face-to-face interactions, which are especially important in developmental years,” he said.

“We recommend individuals limit their time on YouTube and seek out other forms of social interaction to combat loneliness and promote positive mental health.”

Dr Balcombe said the amount of time spent on YouTube was often a concern for parents, who struggled to monitor their children’s use of the platform for educational or other purposes.

For the purpose of the study, over two hours per day of YouTube consumption was classed as high frequency use and over five hours a day as saturated use.

The study also determined more needed to be done to prevent suicide-related content being recommended to users based on algorithms for suggested viewing.

While ideally, people shouldn’t be able to search for these topics and be exposed to methods, the YouTube algorithm does push recommendations or suggestions based on previous searches, which can send users further down a disturbing ‘rabbit hole’.

Users can report this type of content, but sometimes it may not be reported, or it could be there for a few days or weeks and with the sheer volume of content passing through, it's almost impossible for YouTube’s algorithms to stop all of it.

If a piece of content is flagged as possibly containing suicide or self-harm topics, YouTube then provides a warning and asks the user if they want to play the video.

“With vulnerable children and adolescents who engage in high frequency use, there could be value in monitoring and intervention through artificial intelligence,” Dr Balcombe said.

“We’ve explored human–computer interaction issues and proposed a concept for an independent-of-YouTube algorithmic recommendation system which will steer users toward verified positive mental health content or promotions.

“YouTube is increasingly used for mental health purposes, mainly for information seeking or sharing and many digital mental health approaches are being tried with varying levels of merit, but with over 10,000 mental health apps currently available, it can be really overwhelming knowing which ones to use, or even which ones to recommend from a practitioner point of view.

“There is a gap for verified mental health or suicide tools based on a mix of AI-based machine learning, risk modelling and suitably qualified human decisions, but by getting mental health and suicide experts together to verify information from AI, digital mental health interventions could be a very promising solution to support increasing unmet mental health needs.”

The full study, ‘The Impact of YouTube on Loneliness and Mental Health’, can be accessed online at https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9709/10/2/39.

JOURNAL

Informatics

DOI

10.3390/informatics10020039

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The Impact of YouTube on Loneliness and Mental Health