Search Results (11)

Background: Severe maternal morbidity (SMM) is increasing in the United States. The main objective of this study is to test the use of machine learning (ML) techniques to develop models for predicting SMM during delivery hospitalizations in Maryland. Secondarily, we examine disparities in SMM by key sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: We used the linked State Inpatient Database (SID) and the American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey data from Maryland for 2016–2019 (N = 261,226 delivery hospitalizations). We first estimated relative risks for SMM across key sociodemographic factors (e.g., race, income, insurance, and primary language). Then, we fitted LASSO and, for comparison, Logit models with 75 and 18 features. The selection of SMM features was based on clinical expert opinion, a literature review, statistical significance, and computational resource constraints. Various model performance metrics, including the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), accuracy, precision, and recall values were computed to compare predictive performance. Results: During 2016–2019, 76 per 10,000 deliveries (1976 of 261,226) were in patients who experienced an SMM event. The Logit model with a full list of 75 features achieved an AUC of 0.71 in the validation dataset, which marginally decreased to 0.69 in the reduced model with 18 features. The LASSO algorithm with the same 18 features demonstrated slightly superior predictive performance and an AUC of 0.80. We found significant disparities in SMM among patients living in low-income areas, with public insurance, and who were non-Hispanic Black or non-English speakers. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing ML and administrative hospital discharge data for SMM prediction. The low recall score is a limitation across all models we compared, signifying that the algorithms struggle with identifying all SMM cases. This study identified substantial disparities in SMM across various sociodemographic factors. Addressing these disparities requires multifaceted interventions that include improving access to quality care, enhancing cultural competence among healthcare providers, and implementing policies that help mitigate social determinants of health. Full article

Human activities significantly influence the changes in wildlife habitats and biodiversity, highlighting the necessity to enhance public knowledge, perceptions, and practices (KPP) to mitigate their consequences. Previous research suggests that many people in Bangladesh do not consider wildlife and biodiversity conservation a crucial issue. However, enhancing their KPP could be essential in developing effective and sustainable conservation efforts in Bangladesh. So, the current study aimed to evaluate the public’s KPP of wildlife conservation and biodiversity management in Bangladesh. A total of 3060 individuals’ data were collected from various sociodemographic backgrounds using a structured questionnaire followed by statistical analyses including Pearson’s chi-square, Spearman’s correlation, and logistic regression analysis, which were performed to assess the correlations and trends among variables using STATA and SPSS. The results revealed a significant heterogeneity in KPP across different sociodemographic groups. Importantly, the younger respondents (ages 21–30) indicated a high level of KPP, and respondents without formal education and belonging to older ages demonstrated markedly low levels of KPP. In the country’s divisional levels, respondents from Khulna and Rangpur revealed the highest and lowest KPP levels, respectively. Our study also revealed that students represented the major occupational demographic and displayed moderate levels of KPP. Notably, respondents highlighted the decline or absence of several wild animal species, including black bears, deer, vultures, wild cats, hanuman monkeys, and rhesus monkeys, from their local areas over the past decades. Public opinion on wildlife protection revealed 78.6% and 73.4% disapproving of hunting rejection and wildlife trading, respectively. Nonetheless, a lack of knowledge remained, as 16.89% of respondents were unaware of measures to alleviate human-wildlife conflict. The correlation analysis indicated a favorable association among KPP components, especially between knowledge and perception (correlation coefficient = 0.438), underscoring the essential influence of awareness on conservation actions. This study offers critical insights for developing interventions to enhance KPP among local communities and stakeholders, hence promoting sustainable wildlife conservation and biodiversity management in Bangladesh. Taken together, the findings provide baseline data for safeguarding biodiversity and fostering long-term wildlife sustainability in Bangladesh. Full article

Contrary to what other mayors had done to deal with calls to remove Confederate monuments in their cities, the first Black woman mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina appointed a 2020 commission to evaluate and make recommendations for dealing with the monument controversy. As the state’s largest city and “international gateway” to the New South, Charlotte had long wrestled with tensions over cultural memory. Utilizing a mixed methods “embedded design” case study approach, this article examines quantitative and qualitative data, including an analysis of newspaper articles from The Charlotte Observer and The Raleigh News & Observer, to ascertain public reaction to the commission. Results show that media accounts often framed the city’s monument controversy as reflecting the locale’s new sociodemographic reality, a euphemism for lingering conflicts in the jurisdiction over cultural memory, heritage claims, electoral representation, race, and monumentality. Full article

Climate change misinformation refers to inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading climate change-related information created and spread in the public domain. Despite substantial consensus among the scientific community on the reality of anthropogenic climate change, public opinion still remains divided. Combating the climate crisis requires immediate and meaningful actions; however, various actors generate and propagate climate change misinformation, with vested interests in sowing doubts in the public sphere about the reality and urgency of climate impacts. The United States of America, where public opinion holds a strong sway in many social and political spheres, acts as a pertinent case in point, where the prevalence of climate denial fueled by persistent climate change misinformation contributes to this divided public perspective. For this reason, it is imperative to enhance the understanding of the subtle ways climate change misinformation exists and functions. This article employs actor–network theory and the concept of black-boxing to explore a case of climate change misinformation in the United States, with the aim of comprehending the workings of climate change misinformation within its network. Full article

Analyzing data from a survey of U.S. adults (N = 509), our study examines the role of partisan media in (a) shaping people’s perceptions of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, (b) producing an echo-chamber effect, influencing users to believe that other people have an opinion similar to their own, and (c) creating a polarized public opinion environment, where people hold more extreme perspectives on BLM. Left-wing media consumption was positively correlated with favorable perceptions of BLM, while right-wing media consumption had a negative correlation, suggesting that partisan media could influence users’ own perceptions of BLM. Also, left-wing media consumption was positively correlated with the belief that others held favorable views of BLM, while right-wing media consumption was negatively correlated with such a belief, suggesting that partisan media could affect one’s beliefs about others’ perceptions. Supporting its role in producing an echo-chamber effect, frequent right-wing media usage was associated with a smaller difference between one’s own views and their assessment of others’ views regarding BLM. Finally, there was a positive correlation between left-wing media consumption and having extreme perceptions of BLM, suggesting that the use of left-wing media could play a role in creating a polarized public opinion climate. Full article

Society and scholars have debated the representation of both women and either immigrants or Muslims in the media and how this representation might affect possible racist behavior and public policy choices. This study responds to the need for a better understanding of the intersectional media representation of migrant and/or racialized women. Framing analysis was conducted on the 234 clippings in which the six most popular Spanish broadsheet newspapers referred to the women in question throughout 2021. We observed that these women are underrepresented and that the opinion the press tends to shape varies depending on the women’s identity marker (Muslim, immigrant and/or Black) and the ideology of the dailies (leftist or rightist). Finally, it is relevant whether a newspaper is published in a territory with a large foreign and Muslim population. Full article

Leveraging social influence is an increasingly common strategy to change population behavior or acceptance of public health policies and interventions; however, assessing the effectiveness of these social network interventions and projecting their performance at scale requires modeling of the opinion diffusion process. We previously developed a genetic algorithm to fit the DeGroot opinion diffusion model in settings with small social networks and limited follow-up of opinion change. Here, we present an assessment of the algorithm performance under the less-than-ideal conditions likely to arise in practical applications. We perform a simulation study to assess the performance of the algorithm in the presence of ordinal (rather than continuous) opinion measurements, network sampling, and model misspecification. We found that the method handles alternate models well, performance depends on the precision of the ordinal scale, and sampling the full network is not necessary to use this method. We also apply insights from the simulation study to investigate notable features of opinion diffusion models for a social network intervention to increase uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among Black men who have sex with men (BMSM). Full article

Commercial gambling is increasingly viewed as being part of the unhealthy commodities industries, in which products contribute to preventable ill-health globally. Britain has one of the world’s most liberal gambling markets, meaning that the regulatory changes there have implications for developments elsewhere. A review of the British Gambling Act 2005 is underway. This has generated a range of actions by the industry, including mobilising arguments around the threat of the “black market”. We critically explore industry’s framing of these issues as part of their strategy to resist regulatory change during the Gambling Act review. We used a predefined review protocol to explore industry narratives about the “black market” in media reports published between 8 December 2020 and 26 May 2021. Fifty-five articles were identified and reviewed, and themes were narratively synthesised to examine industry framing of the “black market”. The black market was framed in terms of economic threat and loss, and a direct connection was made between its growth and increased regulation. The articles mainly presented gambling industry perspectives uncritically, citing industry-generated evidence (n = 40). Industry narratives around the “black market” speak to economically and emotionally salient concerns: fear, safety, consumer freedom and economic growth. This dominant framing in political, mainstream and industry media may influence political and public opinion to support the current status quo: “protecting” the existing regulated market rather than “protecting” people. Debates should be reframed to consider all policy options, especially those designed to protect public health. Full article

Despite its growing economic and political importance, this is the first study in economics to investigate public opinion in the United States regarding both the allocation of government disaster aid to stricken households and communities as well as total expenditures by government on such aid. This is also the first study to bridge a gap in previous research on disasters by comparing and contrasting our results to related behavioral studies from political science, social psychology and sociology. Combining individual data from the 2006 General Social Survey with county-level information about the local environment of survey respondents, we estimate probit models to ascertain the magnitude and significance of the socioeconomic, demographic, political and experiential determinants of public opinion on these issues. Among other results, we find that Black survey respondents strongly support increasing total aid expenditures and aid to affected households and communities while income, age and a conservative political ideology largely exert a negative influence on these same variables. Surprisingly, the effects of prior experience with disasters and educational level have only a weak effect on the allocation of aid and none on the level of expenditures on aid. These and other results are consistent with only a portion of previous findings from other disciplines. Several implications of our results for current federal disaster policy are discussed and we also suggest directions for further research into this important topic. Full article

Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, much ado has been made about how racial anxiety fueled White vote choice for Donald Trump. Far less empirical attention has been paid to whether the 2016 election cycle triggered black anxieties and if those anxieties led blacks to reevaluate their communities’ standing relative to Latinos and immigrants. Employing data from the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey, we examine the extent to which race consciousness both coexists with black perceptions of Latinos and shapes black support for anti-immigrant legislation. Our results address how the conflation of Latino with undocumented immigrant may have activated a perceptional and policy backlash amongst black voters. Full article

The “pot bears” received international media attention in 2010 after police discovered the intentional feeding of over 20 black bears during the investigation of an alleged marijuana-growing operation in Christina Lake, British Columbia, Canada. A two-phase random digit dialing survey of the community was conducted in 2011 to understand local perspectives on bear policy and management, before and after a summer of problem bear activity and government interventions. Of the 159 households surveyed in February 2011, most had neutral or positive attitudes towards bears in general, and supported the initial decision to feed the food-conditioned bears until the autumn hibernation. In contrast to wildlife experts however, most participants supported relocating the problem bears, or allowing them to remain in the area, ahead of killing; in part this arose from notions of fairness despite the acknowledged problems of relocation. Most locals were aware of the years of feeding but did not report it, evidently failing to see it as a serious form of harm, even after many bears had been killed. This underscores the importance of preventive action on wildlife feeding and the need to narrow the gap between public and expert opinion on the likely effects of relocation versus killing. Full article