Sickened
Disgust, Anxiety, and Political Learning in the Face of Threat
Scott Clifford & Jennifer Jerit
American Journal of Political Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Emotions feature prominently in political rhetoric and media frames, and they have potent effects on how people process information. Yet, existing research has largely overlooked the influence of disgust, which is a basic emotion that leads people to avoid contamination threats. We illustrate how disgust may impede learning, as compared to the more commonly studied emotion of anxiety. Disgust and anxiety are natural reactions to many kinds of political threats, but the two emotions influence political engagement in different ways. This study investigated the distinctive effects of disgust in a series of experiments that manipulated information about the outbreak of an infectious disease. People who felt disgusted by a health threat were less likely to learn crucial facts about the threat and less likely to seek additional information. Thus, disgust has the counterintuitive effect of decreasing public engagement in precisely those situations where it is most critical.
The Impact of U.S. Free Trade Agreements on Calorie Availability and Obesity: A Natural Experiment in Canada
Pepita Barlow, Martin McKee & David Stuckler
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, forthcoming
Methods: Data from the UN (2017) were analyzed using fixed-effects regression models and the synthetic control method to estimate the impact of the Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement on calorie availability in Canada, 1978–2006, and coinciding increases in U.S. exports and investment in Canada’s food and beverage sector. The impact of changes to calorie availability on body weights was then modeled.
Results: Calorie availability increased by ≅170 kilocalories per capita per day in Canada after the Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement. There was a coinciding rise in U.S. trade and investment in the Canadian food and beverage sector. This rise in calorie availability is estimated to account for an average weight gain of between 1.8 kg and 12.2 kg in the Canadian population, depending on sex and physical activity levels.
Trends and Patterns of Geographic Variation in Mortality From Substance Use Disorders and Intentional Injuries Among US Counties, 1980-201
Laura Dwyer-Lindgren et al.
Journal of the American Medical Association, 13 March 2018, Pages 1013-1023
Design and Setting: Validated small-area estimation models were applied to deidentified death records from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and population counts from the US Census Bureau, NCHS, and the Human Mortality Database to estimate county-level mortality rates from 1980 to 2014 for alcohol use disorders, drug use disorders, self-harm, and interpersonal violence.
Results: Between 1980 and 2014, there were 2 848 768 deaths due to substance use disorders and intentional injuries recorded in the United States. Mortality rates from alcohol use disorders (n = 256 432), drug use disorders (n = 542 501), self-harm (n = 1 289 086), and interpersonal violence (n = 760 749) varied widely among counties. Mortality rates decreased for alcohol use disorders, self-harm, and interpersonal violence at the national level between 1980 and 2014; however, over the same period, the percentage of counties in which mortality rates increased for these causes was 65.4% for alcohol use disorders, 74.6% for self-harm, and 6.6% for interpersonal violence. Mortality rates from drug use disorders increased nationally and in every county between 1980 and 2014, but the relative increase varied from 8.2% to 8369.7%. Relative and absolute geographic inequalities in mortality, as measured by comparing the 90th and 10th percentile among counties, decreased for alcohol use disorders and interpersonal violence but increased substantially for drug use disorders and self-harm between 1980 and 2014.
Sunlight and Protection Against Influenza
David Slusky & Richard Zeckhauser
NBER Working Paper, February 2018
Abstract:
Recent medical literature suggests that vitamin D supplementation protects against acute respiratory tract infection. Humans exposed to sunlight produce vitamin D directly. This paper investigates how differences in sunlight, as measured over several years within states and during the same calendar month, affect influenza incidence. We find that sunlight strongly protects against influenza. This relationship is driven by sunlight in late summer and early fall, when there are sufficient quantities of both sunlight and influenza activity. A 10% increase in relative sunlight decreases the influenza index in September by 3 points on a 10-point scale. This effect is far greater than the effect of vitamin D supplementation in randomized trials, a differential due to broad exposure to sunlight, hence herd immunity. We also find suggestive evidence, consistent with herd immunity theory, that the protective sunlight effect is strongest with a middle level of population density.
The Great Recession worsened blood pressure and blood glucose levels in American adults
Teresa Seeman et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 27 March 2018, Pages 3296-3301
Abstract:
Longitudinal, individual-specific data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) provide support for the hypothesis that the 2008 to 2010 Great Recession (GR) negatively impacted the health of US adults. Results further advance understanding of the relationship by (i) illuminating hypothesized greater negative impacts in population subgroups exposed to more severe impacts of the GR and (ii) explicitly controlling for confounding by individual differences in age-related changes in health over time. Analyses overcome limitations of prior work by (i) employing individual-level data that avoid concerns about ecological fallacy associated with prior reliance on group-level data, (ii) using four waves of data before the GR to estimate and control for underlying individual-level age-related trends, (iii) focusing on objective, temporally appropriate health outcomes rather than mortality, and (iv) leveraging a diverse cohort to investigate subgroup differences in the GR’s impact. Innovative individual fixed-effects modeling controlling for individual-level age-related trajectories yielded substantively important insights: (i) significant elevations post-GR for blood pressure and fasting glucose, especially among those on medication pre-GR, and (ii) reductions in prevalence and intensity of medication use post-GR. Important differences in the effects of the GR are seen across subgroups, with larger effects among younger adults (who are likely still in the labor force) and older homeowners (whose declining home wealth likely reduced financial security, with less scope for recouping losses during their lifetime); least affected were older adults without a college degree (whose greater reliance on Medicare and Social Security likely provided more protection from the recession).
Intake of Sugar-sweetened Beverages and Fecundability in a North American Preconception Cohort
Elizabeth Hatch et al.
Epidemiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Dietary factors, including sugar-sweetened beverages, may have adverse effects on fertility. Sugar-sweetened beverages have been associated with poor semen quality in cross-sectional studies, and female soda intake has been associated with lower fecundability in some, but not all, studies. We evaluated the association of female and male sugar-sweetened beverage intake with fecundability among 3828 women planning pregnancy and 1045 of their male partners in a North American prospective cohort study. We followed participants enrolled between June 2013 and May 2017 until pregnancy or for up to twelve menstrual cycles. Eligible women were aged 21-45 years (male partners ≥21), attempting conception for ≤6 cycles, and not using fertility treatments. Participants completed a comprehensive baseline questionnaire, including questions on soda (sugar-sweetened and diet), fruit juice, energy, and sports drink consumption during the previous 4 weeks. We estimated time-to-pregnancy from follow-up questionnaires completed every 2 months by the female partner. We calculated adjusted fecundability ratios (FR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) according to intake of sugar-sweetened beverages using proportional probabilities regression. Both female and male intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages were associated with reduced fecundability (FR= 0.81; 95% CI: 0.70, 0.94 and 0.78; 95% CI: 0.63, 0.95 for ≥ 7 sugar-sweetened beverages per week compared with none, for females and males, respectively). Fecundability was further reduced among those who drank ≥7 servings per week of sugar-sweetened sodas (FR= 0.75, 95% CI: 0.59, 0.95 for females and 0.67, 95% CI: 0.51, 0.89 for males). Diet soda had little association with fecundability.
Crowdfunding Scientific Research
Henry Sauermann, Chiara Franzoni & Kourosh Shafi
NBER Working Paper, March 2018
Abstract:
Crowdfunding may provide much-needed financial resources, yet there is little systematic evidence on the potential of crowdfunding for scientific research. We first briefly review prior research on crowdfunding and give an overview of dedicated platforms for crowdfunding research. We then analyze data from over 700 campaigns on the largest dedicated platform, Experiment.com. Our descriptive analysis provides insights regarding the creators seeking funding, the projects they are seeking funding for, and the campaigns themselves. We then examine how these characteristics relate to fundraising success. The findings highlight important differences between crowdfunding and traditional funding mechanisms for research, including high use by students and other junior investigators but also relatively small project size. Junior investigators are more likely to succeed than senior scientists, and women have higher success rates than men. Conventional signals of quality - including scientists' prior publications - have no relationship with funding success, suggesting that the crowd applies different decision criteria than traditional funding agencies. Our results highlight significant opportunities for crowdfunding in the context of science while also pointing towards unique challenges. We relate our findings to research on the economics of science and on crowdfunding, and we discuss connections with other emerging mechanisms to involve the public in scientific research.
Behaviors, movements, and transmission of droplet-mediated respiratory diseases during transcontinental airline flights
Vicki Stover Hertzberg et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
With over 3 billion airline passengers annually, the inflight transmission of infectious diseases is an important global health concern. Over a dozen cases of inflight transmission of serious infections have been documented, and air travel can serve as a conduit for the rapid spread of newly emerging infections and pandemics. Despite sensational media stories and anecdotes, the risks of transmission of respiratory viruses in an airplane cabin are unknown. Movements of passengers and crew may facilitate disease transmission. On 10 transcontinental US flights, we chronicled behaviors and movements of individuals in the economy cabin on single-aisle aircraft. We simulated transmission during flight based on these data. Our results indicate there is low probability of direct transmission to passengers not seated in close proximity to an infectious passenger. This data-driven, dynamic network transmission model of droplet-mediated respiratory disease is unique. To measure the true pathogen burden, our team collected 229 environmental samples during the flights. Although eight flights were during Influenza season, all qPCR assays for 18 common respiratory viruses were negative.
Friends With Health Benefits: The Long-Term Benefits of Early Peer Social Integration for Blood Pressure and Obesity in Midlife
Jenny Cundiff & Karen Matthews
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In adults, greater social integration is associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, including hypertension. Social integration earlier in life may be similarly associated with cardiovascular risk. Using a longitudinal sample of 267 Black and White men, we examined whether greater social integration with peers during childhood and adolescence, assessed by parent report, prospectively predicts lower blood pressure and body mass index two decades later in adulthood and whether these effects differ by race, given well-documented racial disparities in hypertension. Boys who were reported by their parents to be more socially integrated with peers evidenced lower blood pressure and body mass index in adulthood, and this effect was not accounted for by body mass index in childhood, childhood socioeconomic status, childhood hostility, childhood physical health, extraversion measured in adolescence, or concurrent adult self-reports of social integration. Results did not differ by race, but analyses were not powered to detect interactions of small effect size.
Season of Birth and Depression in Adulthood: Revisiting Historical Forerunner Evidence for In-Utero Effects
Jason Schnittker
SSM - Population Health, forthcoming
Abstract:
Evidence showing a relationship between season of birth and adult well-being is long-standing, but is now largely overlooked or dismissed. In light of increasingly compelling evidence for the effects of in-utero conditions on adult health, however, it is instructive to revisit the relationship, with an eye toward resolving the reasons for skepticism. This study uses data from the first National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey to examine the effects of month of birth on adult depression. The data correspond to an important time in history and the analysis points to one reason why enthusiasm for birth seasonality in depression has faded: although there was a strong relationship between month of birth and depression in the early 20th century, with spring and summer month births corresponding to significantly more depression, the relationship was largely eliminated by the 1940 birth cohort. Few adults alive today would be subject to this effect, but when it was apparent it was enormously consequential. Population attributable risk scenarios indicate that among those born between 1900 and 1920 the prevalence of major depression would have been reduced by approximately 21% if all births had been confined to November through March. The percent rises to 25% among those born between 1900 and 1910, and was likely even higher in earlier cohorts. Additional analyses point to the importance of nutritional deficits in explaining these effects. In the early 20th century, the relationship between month of birth and depression was weaker in circumstances where the food supply was less seasonally sensitive. For this reason, the turn-of-the-century relationship between month of birth and depression was much weaker among the well-educated, in Southern states, and in urban areas. Although birth seasonality in depression can be regarded as a historical artefact of diet and nutrition, evidence for its prior existence nonetheless speaks to the significance of other in-utero effects, both past and present.
Self-reported confusion is related to global and regional β-amyloid: Data from the Women’s healthy ageing project
Georgia McCluskey et al.
Brain Imaging and Behavior, February 2018, Pages 78–86
Abstract:
Disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may require implementation during early stages of β-amyloid accumulation, well before patients have objective cognitive decline. In this study we aimed to assess the clinical value of subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) by examining the cross-sectional relationship between β-amyloid load and SCI. Cerebral β-amyloid and SCI was assessed in a cohort of 112 cognitively normal subjects. Subjective cognition was evaluated using specific questions on memory and cognition and the MAC-Q. Participants had cerebral β-amyloid load measured with 18F–Florbetaben Positron Emission Tomography (PET). No associations were found between measures of subjective memory impairment and cerebral β-amyloid. However, by self-reported confusion was predictive of a higher global β-amyloid burden (p = 0.002), after controlling for confounders. Regional analysis revealed significant associations of confusion with β-amyloid in the prefrontal region (p = 0.004), posterior cingulate and precuneus cortices (p = 0.004) and the lateral temporal lobes (p = 0.001) after controlling for confounders. An in vivo biomarker for AD pathology was associated with SCI by self-reported confusion on cross-sectional analysis. Whilst there has been a large body of research on SMC, our results indicate more research is needed to explore symptoms of confusion.
Long-term association between the intensity of cosmic rays and mortality rates in the city of Sao Paulo
Carolina Vieira et al.
Environmental Research Letters, February 2018
Abstract:
Human beings are constantly exposed to many kinds of environmental agents which affect their health and lifespan. Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) are the main source of ionizing radiation in the lower troposphere, in which secondary products can penetrate the ground and underground layers. GCRs affect the physical–chemical properties of the terrestrial atmosphere, as well as the biosphere. GCRs are modulated by solar activity and latitudinal geomagnetic field distribution. In our ecological/populational retrospective study, we analyzed the correlation between the annual flux of local secondary GCR-induced ionization (CRII) and mortality rates in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 1951–2012. The multivariate linear regression analyses adjusted by demographic and weather parameters showed that CRII are significantly correlated with total mortality, infectious disease mortality, maternal mortality, and perinatal mortality rates (p < 0.001). The underlying mechanisms are still unclear. Further cross-sectional and experimental cohort studies are necessary to understand the biophysical mechanisms of the association found here.
Changes in anti-fat weight bias in women after exposure to thin and plus-sized models
Kimberly Eretzian Smirles & Linda Lin
Social Science Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examined whether exposing women to female models with different body sizes lead to changes in weight-based attitudes and whether evaluation focus altered the effects. Female college students (N = 214) were exposed to 22 images of either thin or overweight models. Participants rated models on either appearance or non-appearance characteristics and completed measures of anti-fat attitudes, thin ideal internalization, and demographics. Participants rated thin and overweight models equally attractive and sexy. Viewing overweight models showed a significant reduction in anti-fat attitudes. There were no effects for thin models or evaluation ratings. Discussion focuses on the implications of positive images of overweight individuals on social attitudes.
Imagine Me and You, I Do: Effects of imagined intergroup contact on anti-fat bias in the context of job interviews
Stephanie Merritt et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, February 2018, Pages 80-89
Abstract:
Imagined intergroup contact (IIC) has been demonstrated to alleviate prejudice toward social groups as a whole, but the extent to which it prevents biases in ratings of individual job candidates has not yet been examined. This study uses a simulated employment interview where a female candidate either higher or lower in body fat is rated by participants who have undergone an IIC or a control manipulation. IIC successfully alleviated discrimination in ratings of interviewee competence but had no significant effect on ratings of warmth. Competence ratings fully mediated the effect of the two-way interaction of IIC and interviewee body fat on a dichotomous hiring recommendation provided 1 week later. IIC may be an effective and inexpensive intervention for reducing bias in job interview contexts.
The Club Store Effect: Impact of Shopping in Warehouse Club Stores on Consumers’ Packaged Food Purchases
Kusum Ailawadi, Yu Ma & Dhruv Grewal
Journal of Marketing Research, April 2018, Pages 193-207
Abstract:
This article studies the impact of shopping at the warehouse club format on households’ purchases of packaged food for the home. In addition to low prices, this format has several unique characteristics that can influence packaged food purchases. The empirical analysis uses a combination of households’ longitudinal grocery purchase information, rich survey data, and detailed item-level nutrition information. After accounting for selection on observables and unobservables, the authors find a substantial increase in the total quantity (servings per capita) of packaged food purchases attributable to shopping at this format. Because there is no effect on the nutritional quality of purchases, this translates into a substantial increase in calories, sugar, and saturated fat per capita. The increase comes primarily from storable and impulse foods, and it is drawn equally from foods that have positive and negative health halos. The results have important implications for how marketers can create win–win opportunities for themselves and for consumers.