Community exposure to armed conflict and subsequent onset of alcohol use disorder

AIMS

To measure the independent consequences of community-level armed conflict beatings on alcohol use disorders (AUD) among males in Nepal during and after the 2000-2006 conflict.

DESIGN

A population-representative panel study from Nepal, with precise measures of community-level violent events and subsequent individual-level AUD in males. Females were not included because of low AUD prevalence.

SETTING

Chitwan, Nepal.

PARTICIPANTS

Four thousand eight hundred seventy-six males from 151 neighborhoods, systematically selected and representative of Western Chitwan. All residents aged 15-59 were eligible (response rate 93%).

MEASUREMENTS

Measures of beatings in the community during the conflict (2000-2006), including the date and distance away, were gathered through neighborhood reports, geo-location and official resources, then linked to respondents' life histories of AUD (collected in 2016-2018) using the Nepal-specific Composite International Diagnostic Interview with life history calendar. Beatings nearby predict the subsequent onset of AUD during and after the armed conflict. Data were analyzed in 2021-2022.

FINDINGS

Cohort-specific, discrete-time models revealed that within the youngest cohort (born 1992-2001), those living in neighborhoods where armed conflict beatings occurred were more likely to develop AUD compared with those in other neighborhoods (odds ratio = 1.66; 95% confidence interval = 1.02-2.71). In this cohort, a multilevel matching analysis designed to simulate a randomized trial showed the post-conflict incidence of AUD for those living in neighborhoods with any armed conflict beatings was 9.5% compared with 5.3% in the matched sample with no beatings.

CONCLUSIONS

Among male children living in Chitwan, Nepal during the 2000-2006 armed conflict, living in a neighborhood where armed conflict beatings occurred is associated with increased odds of developing subsequent alcohol use disorder. This association was independent of personal exposure to beatings and other mental disorders.

Community Violence Exposure and Stress Reactivity in African American and Non-Latino White Adolescents With Overweight/Obesity

Adolescents who experience community violence are exposed to toxic stressors at a critical period of growth and development. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between community violence exposure and stress reactivity in African American and non-Latino white adolescents with overweight/obesity. Fifty-one adolescents (47% female, 55% African American; aged 14-19) participated in this study. Community violence was assessed using the Survey of Children's Exposure to Community Violence. Stress reactivity was assessed via salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase area under the curve (AUC) during a Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Race was a significant predictor of alpha-amylase reactivity (β = 10740±3665, p = 0.0006), with a higher alpha-amylase AUC observed in African American compared to non-Latino white adolescents. There was also a significant difference in the relationship between community violence exposure and alpha-amylase AUC by race (β = -3561±1226, p = 0.007). At similar increases in violence exposure, African Americans demonstrated a significant decline in alpha-amylase AUC while non-Latino whites demonstrated a significant increase in alpha-amylase AUC. Neither race nor violence exposure were significant predictors of cortisol AUC and there were no significant differences in the relationship between community violence exposure and cortisol AUC by race (all p's > .05). These preliminary findings suggest exposure to community violence may act to exacerbate autonomic dysregulation in African American adolescents with overweight/obesity. Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm the mechanisms by which community violence exposure differentially impacts stress responses by race.

Police Fatal Force and Crime Reporting: A Test of Community Responses to Fatal Police-Civilian Encounters

Public perceptions of police legitimacy and effectiveness have been challenged by recent high-profile use of fatal force incidents by the police. Prior scholarship suggests that that controversial incidents involving police use of force can engender distrust of the police. Further, the neighborhood effects literature has demonstrated the importance of community context for police-community relationships and differential responses to controversial incidents by neighborhoods. The current study assesses how communities of varying racial compositions and levels of economic disadvantage respond to police fatal force incidents by assessing neighborhood crime reporting behaviors. Using monthly 911 call data from Los Angeles, CA neighborhoods, this study explores this relationship with a series of fixed effects negative binomial regression models that model police homicides and crime reporting over a seven-year time period. Comparisons between neighborhoods of varying racial/ethnic composition and structural conditions permit the comparison of differential responses across neighborhood context. The results indicate that neighborhood crime reporting decreases following fatal police use of force incidents. Further, these responses varied across neighborhood contexts. Predominately Hispanic neighborhoods experienced greater declines in crime reporting compared to predominately White neighborhoods. Neighborhoods characterized by high levels of concentrated disadvantaged also experienced greater reductions in crime reporting compared to their more advantaged counterparts. Utilization of the formal legal system can be challenged by controversial police incidents; however, these effects are dependent on neighborhood context. Future research should explore how spatial proximity and media portrayal of incidents influence community responses.

Addressing Youth-Focused Research Questions in a Community Context: Collecting and Integrating Mixed Methods Data at Multiple Ecological Levels with the PhotoStories Project

Research seeking to understand and improve social conditions for marginalized youth would benefit from merging complex mixed methods research designs emphasizing multilevel data and participatory-social justice principles. We contribute to mixed methods research by introducing a multilevel, participatory-social justice mixed methods design that accomplishes this task and by illustrating its real-world application via PhotoStories, a multistage study aimed at understanding youths' community-based experiences and emotional well-being. During the project's three phases (preparation, training, and dissemination) we obtained and integrated quantitative and qualitative data at multiple ecological levels. Additionally, we examined youth perceptions about their participation, an important outcome given our participatory-social justice focus. We also provide lessons learned and recommendations for investigators seeking to use similar approaches for youth-focused research.

Association of Greenness with Blood Pressure among Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes across Rural to Urban Community Types in Pennsylvania, USA

Greenness may impact blood pressure (BP), though evidence is limited among individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D), for whom BP management is critical. We evaluated associations of residential greenness with BP among individuals with T2D in geographically diverse communities in Pennsylvania. To address variation in greenness type, we evaluated modification of associations by percent forest. We obtained systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) BP measurements from medical records of 9593 individuals following diabetes diagnosis. Proximate greenness was estimated within 1250-m buffers surrounding individuals’ residences using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) prior to blood pressure measurement. Percent forest was calculated using the U.S. National Land Cover Database. Linear mixed models with robust standard errors accounted for spatial clustering; models were stratified by community type (townships/boroughs/cities). In townships, the greenest communities, an interquartile range increase in NDVI was associated with reductions in SBP of 0.87 mmHg (95% CI: −1.43, −0.30) and in DBP of 0.41 mmHg (95% CI: −0.78, −0.05). No significant associations were observed in boroughs or cities. Evidence for modification by percent forest was weak. Findings suggest a threshold effect whereby high greenness may be necessary to influence BP in this population and support a slight beneficial impact of greenness on cardiovascular disease risk.

Fathers' Migration and Nutritional Status of Children in India: Do the Effects Vary by Community Context?

BACKGROUND

Due to international and internal migration, millions of children in developing countries are geographically separated from one or both of their parents. Prior research has not reached a consensus on the impacts of parental out-migration on children's growth, and little is known about how community contexts modify the impact of parental out-migration.

OBJECTIVE

We aim to assess the overall impacts of fathers' previous and current migration experiences on children's nutritional status in India and how the impacts are shaped by community socioeconomic contexts and community gender norms.

METHODS

Using data from the Indian Human Development Survey collected in 2011-2012, we estimated community fixed-effect regression models predicting the nutritional status of children (ages 10-15) and examined the interactions among fathers' migration, child's gender, and community contexts.

RESULTS

The results showed that children of returned migrants had lower height and Body Mass Index (BMI) than children of non-migrants. Fathers' current absence was associated with lower height and BMI for adolescents in communities with high levels of socioeconomic development but not for those in communities with low levels of development. Fathers' current absence due to migration was especially harmful for girls in communities with strict norms of female seclusion.

CONTRIBUTION

Our findings highlight that the effects of father's out-migration on children are conditioned by the level of communities' socioeconomic development and community gender contexts, which helps to reconcile the previously mixed findings on the effects of parental migration on child outcomes.

Loss of consumers constrains phenotypic evolution in the resulting food web

The loss of biodiversity is altering the structure of ecological networks; however, we are currently in a poor position to predict how these altered communities will affect the evolution of remaining populations. Theory on fitness landscapes provides a framework for predicting how selection alters the evolutionary trajectory and adaptive potential of populations, but often treats the network of interacting populations as a “black box.” Here, we integrate ecological networks and fitness landscapes to examine how changes in food‐web structure shape phenotypic evolution. We conducted a field experiment that removed a guild of larval parasitoids that imposed direct and indirect selection pressures on an insect herbivore. We then measured herbivore survival as a function of three key phenotypic traits to estimate directional, quadratic, and correlational selection gradients in each treatment. We used these selection gradients to characterize the slope and curvature of the fitness landscape to understand the direct and indirect effects of consumer loss on phenotypic evolution. We found that the number of traits under directional selection increased with the removal of larval parasitoids, indicating evolution was more constrained toward a specific combination of traits. Similarly, we found that the removal of larval parasitoids altered the curvature of the fitness landscape in such a way that tended to decrease the evolvability of the traits we measured in the next generation. Our results suggest that the loss of trophic interactions can impose greater constraints on phenotypic evolution. This indicates that the simplification of ecological communities may constrain the adaptive potential of remaining populations to future environmental change.

Rural Location and Relative Location: Adding Community Context to the Study of Sexual Assault Survivor Time Until Presentation for Medical Care

Despite a strong empirical base linking community context and proximity to resources to individual health care access, studies examining predictors of sexual assault survivor time until presentation for medical care have not yet examined these relationships. This study addresses this gap. The data included retrospective records on a sample of 1,630 female survivors who reported their sexual assault to law enforcement and were subsequently seen by a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) in one of eight Alaskan communities between the years 1996 and 2006. Logistic regression models were used to determine whether delays in presentation (presentation 12 hr or more after assault) differed for women presenting in unique communities (rural location), and between those whose assault and exam occurred in different communities versus occurring in the same community (relative location). Although rural location did not seem to have a unique impact on time until presentation, differing locations (i.e., relative location) of assaults and exams increased the likelihood of delays in presentation. Non-American Indian/Alaska Native race/ethnicity and knowing one's assailant(s) also increased the likelihood of delays. These results indicate that in addition to a need for further research, there is a need for more appropriate and reliable sexual assault medical services across communities, and that survivors assaulted by known assailants should be targeted in efforts to reduce time until presentation.

Poverty and Academic Achievement Across the Urban to Rural Landscape: Associations with Community Resources and Stressors

Poor children begin school with fewer academic skills than their nonpoor peers, and these disparities translate into lower achievement, educational attainment, and economic stability in adulthood. Child poverty research traditionally focuses on urban or rural poor, but a shifting spatial orientation of poverty necessitates a richer examination of how urbanicity intersects with economic disadvantage. Combining geospatial administrative data with longitudinal survey data on poor children from kindergarten through second grade (N ≈ 2,950), this project explored how differences in community-level resources and stressors across urbanicity explain variation in achievement. Resources and stressors increased in more urbanized communities and were associated with academic achievement. Both mediated differences in poor children's achievement. Mediation was both direct and indirect, operating through cognitive stimulation and parental warmth.

Drought and increased CO2 alter floral visual and olfactory traits with context-dependent effects on pollinator visitation

Climate change can alter species interactions essential for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function, such as pollination. Understanding the interactive effects of multiple abiotic conditions on floral traits and pollinator visitation are important to anticipate the implications of climate change on pollinator services. Floral visual and olfactory traits were measured from individuals of four forb species subjected to drought or normal water availability, and elevated or ambient concentrations of CO₂ in a factorial design. Pollinator visitation rates and community composition were observed in single-species and multi-species forb assemblages. Drought decreased floral visual traits and pollinator visitation rates but increased volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, whereas elevated CO₂ positively affected floral visual traits, VOC emissions and pollinator visitation rates. There was little evidence of interactive effects of drought and CO₂ on floral traits and pollinator visitation. Interestingly, the effects of climate treatments on pollinator visitation depended on whether plants were in single- or multi-species assemblages. Components of climate change altered floral traits and pollinator visitation, but effects were modulated by plant community context. Investigating the response of floral traits, including VOCs, and context-dependency of pollinator attraction provides additional insights and may aid in understanding the overall effects of climate change on plant-pollinator interactions.

Caterpillar seed predators mediate shifts in selection on flowering phenology in their host plant

Variation in selection among populations and years has important implications for evolutionary trajectories of populations. Yet, the agents of selection causing this variation have rarely been identified. Selection on the time of reproduction within a season in plants might differ both among populations and among years, and selection can be mediated by both mutualists and antagonists. We investigated if differences in the direction of phenotypic selection on flowering phenology among 20 populations of Gentiana pneumonanthe during 2 yr were related to the presence of the butterfly seed predator Phengaris alcon, and if butterfly incidence was associated with the abundance of the butterfly's second host, Myrmica ants. In plant populations without the butterfly, phenotypic selection favored earlier flowering. In populations where the butterfly was present, caterpillars preferentially attacked early-flowering individuals, shifting the direction of selection to favoring later flowering. Butterfly incidence in plant populations increased with ant abundance. Our results demonstrate that antagonistic interactions can shift the direction of selection on flowering phenology, and suggest that such shifts might be associated with differences in the community context.

Whose Moral Community? Religiosity, Secularity, and Self-rated Health across Communal Religious Contexts

Scholars have long theorized that religious contexts provide health-promoting social integration and regulation. A growing body of literature has documented associations between individual religiosity and health as well as macro-micro linkages between religious contexts, religious participation, and individual health. Using unique data on individuals and county contexts in the United States, this study offers new insight by using multilevel analysis to examine meso-micro relationships between religion and health. We assess whether and how the relationship between individual religiosity and health depends on communal religious contexts. In highly religious contexts, religious individuals are less likely to have poor health, while nonreligious individuals are markedly more likely to have poor health. In less religious contexts, religious and nonreligious individuals report similar levels of health. Consequently, the health gap between religious and nonreligious individuals is largest in religiously devout contexts, primarily due to the negative effects on nonreligious individuals' health in religious contexts.

Community Context and Child Health: A Human Capital Perspective

Human capital theory suggests that education benefits individuals' and their children's health through the educational skills people acquire in school. This perspective may also be relevant at the community level: the greater presence of adults with educational skills in a community may be a reason why living in a more highly educated setting benefits health. I use Demographic and Health Survey data for 30 sub-Saharan African countries to investigate whether the percentage of literate adults-specifically women-in a community is associated with children's likelihood of survival. I characterize 13,785 African communities according to the prevalence of women who are literate. Multilevel discrete-time hazard models ( N = 536,781 children) confirm that living in a community where more women are literate is positively associated with child survival. The study supports the conceptualization of literacy, and potentially other educational skills, as forms of human capital that can spill over to benefit others.

The effects of genome duplications in a community context

Contents 57 I. 57 II. 59 III. 59 IV. 63 V. 64 VI. 64 VII. 66 66 References 66 SUMMARY: Whole-genome duplication (WGD), or polyploidy, has important effects on the genotype and phenotype of plants, potentially altering ecological interactions with other organisms. Even though the connections between polyploidy and species interactions have been recognized for some time, we are only just beginning to test whether WGD affects community context. Here I review the sparse information on polyploidy and community context and then present a set of hypotheses for future work. Thus far, community-level studies of polyploids suggest an array of outcomes, from no changes in community context to shifts in the abundance and composition of interacting species. I propose a number of mechanisms for how WGD could alter community context and how the emergence of polyploids in populations could also alter the community context of parental diploids and other plant species. Resolving how and when these changes are expected to occur will require a deeper understanding of the connections among WGD, phenotypic changes, and the direct and indirect effects of species interactions.

Community Prevention Coalition Context and Capacity Assessment: Comparing the United States and Mexico

Effective planning for community health partnerships requires understanding how initial readiness-that is, contextual factors and capacity-influences implementation of activities and programs. This study compares the context and capacity of drug and violence prevention coalitions in Mexico to those in the United States. Measures of coalition context include community problems, community leadership style, and sense of community. Measures of coalition capacity include the existence of collaborative partnerships and coalition champions. The assessment was completed by 195 members of 9 coalitions in Mexico and 139 members of 7 coalitions in the United States. Psychometric analyses indicate the measures have moderate to strong internal consistency, along with good convergent and discriminant validity in both settings. Results indicate that members of Mexican coalitions perceive substantially more serious community problems, especially with respect to education, law enforcement, and access to alcohol and drugs. Compared to respondents in the United States, Mexican respondents perceive sense of community to be weaker and that prevention efforts are not as valued by the population where the coalitions are located. The Mexican coalitions appear to be operating in a substantially more challenging environment for the prevention of violence and substance use. Their ability to manage these challenges will likely play a large role in determining whether they are successful in their prevention efforts. The context and capacity assessment is a valuable tool that coalitions can use in order to identify and address initial barriers to success.

Sexual Violence in the Backlands: Toward a Macro-Level Understanding of Rural Sex Crimes

This research focuses on structural covariates of sex crimes in rural communities (using urban and urbanizing communities as comparison groups), with particular analysis on exploring how the magnitude and direction of such covariates differ with respect to type of sex crime. Using 2000 sex crime data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) for the population of reporting U.S. cities, negative binomial and logistic regression procedures were used to explore the relationship between resource disadvantage, local investment, and economic inequality and sex crime subtypes. For sex crimes that occurred almost exclusively in the home, urban and urbanizing community rates were largely influenced by resource disadvantage and local investment, while these measures did not reach significance for explaining rural rates. Conversely, local investment was a significant predictor of sex crimes that occurred outside the home in rural communities. This research indicates that a structural analysis of sexual victimization (widely absent from the scientific literature) does yield significant findings and that disaggregation of crime into subtypes allows for a more detailed differentiation between urban and rural communities.

The nature of violence: a multilevel analysis of gun use and victim injury in violent interpersonal encounters

A large number of studies have examined predictors of crime quantities yet considerably less attention has been directed toward exploring patterns in the nature or quality of violence within and across communities. The current study adds to the literature on qualitative variations in violence by assessing the incident and contextual-level predictors of offender gun use and physical injuries sustained by victims of robbery and aggravated assault. Specifically, we examine incident-level data from the National Incident Based Reporting System in conjunction with contextual-level data on the cities in which the incidents occurred. We use hierarchical linear and nonlinear modeling techniques to explore variations in predictors of offender gun use and extent of victim injury. Supporting cultural effects explicated by Anderson, results reveal certain individual-level predictors are conditioned by community characteristics.

Choosing healthier foods in recreational sports settings: a mixed methods investigation of the impact of nudging and an economic incentive

BACKGROUND

Nudging is an approach to environmental change that alters social and physical environments to shift behaviors in positive, self-interested directions. Evidence indicates that eating is largely an automatic behavior governed by environmental cues, suggesting that it might be possible to nudge healthier dietary behaviors. This study assessed the comparative and additive efficacy of two nudges and an economic incentive in supporting healthy food purchases by patrons at a recreational swimming pool.

METHODS

An initial pre-intervention period was followed by three successive and additive interventions that promoted sales of healthy items through: signage, taste testing, and 30% price reductions; concluding with a return to baseline conditions. Each period was 8 days in length. The primary outcome was the change in the proportion of healthy items sold in the intervention periods relative to pre- and post-intervention in the full sample, and in a subsample of patrons whose purchases were directly observed. Secondary outcomes included change in the caloric value of purchases, change in revenues and gross profits, and qualitative process observations. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance, chi-square tests and thematic content analysis.

RESULTS

Healthy items represented 41% of sales and were significantly lower than sales of unhealthy items (p < 0.0001). In the full sample, sales of healthy items did not differ across periods, whereas in the subsample, sales of healthy items increased by 30% when a signage + taste testing intervention was implemented (p < 0.01). This increase was maintained when prices of healthy items were reduced by 30%, and when all interventions were removed. When adults were alone they purchased more healthy items compared to when children were present during food purchases (p < 0.001), however parental choices were not substantially better than choices made by children alone.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found mixed evidence for the efficacy of nudging in cueing healthier dietary behaviors. Moreover, price reductions appeared ineffectual in this setting. Our findings point to complex, context-specific patterns of effectiveness and suggest that nudging should not supplant the use of other strategies that have proven to promote healthier dietary behaviors.

Floral polymorphism and the fitness implications of attracting pollinating and florivorous insects

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Floral polymorphism is frequently attributed to pollinator-mediated selection. Multiple studies, however, have revealed the importance of non-pollinating visitors in floral evolution. Using the polymorphic annual daisy Ursinia calenduliflora, this study investigated the importance of different insect visitors, and their effects on fitness, in the maintenance of floral polymorphism.

METHODS

The spatial structure of a discrete floral polymorphism was characterized based on the presence/absence of anthocyanin floret spots in U. calenduliflora. A 3-year observational study was then conducted in polymorphic populations to investigate differences in visitation rates of dominant visitors to floral morphs. Experiments were performed to explore the floral preference of male and female Megapalpus capensis (the dominant insect visitor) and their effectiveness as pollinators. Next, floral damage by antagonistic florivores and the reproductive success of the two floral morphs were surveyed in multiple populations and years.

KEY RESULTS

Floral polymorphism in U. calenduliflora was structured spatially, as were insect visitation patterns. Megapalpus capensis males were the dominant visitors and exhibited strong preference for the spotted morph in natural and experimental observations. While this may indicate potential fitness benefits for the spotted morph, female fitness did not differ between floral morphs. However, as M. capensis males are very efficient at exporting U. calenduliflora pollen, their preference may likely increase the reproductive fitness of the spotted morph through male fitness components. The spotted morph, however, also suffered significantly greater costs due to ovule predation by florivores than the spotless morph.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that pollinators and florivores may potentially exert antagonistic selection that could contribute to the maintenance of floral polymorphism across the range of U. calenduliflora. The relative strength of selection imposed by each agent is potentially determined by insect community composition and abundance at each site, highlighting the importance of community context in the evolution of floral phenotypes.

Non-additive benefit or cost? Disentangling the indirect effects that occur when plants bearing extrafloral nectaries and honeydew-producing insects share exotic ant mutualists

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

In complex communities, organisms often form mutualisms with multiple different partners simultaneously. Non-additive effects may emerge among species linked by these positive interactions. Ants commonly participate in mutualisms with both honeydew-producing insects (HPI) and their extrafloral nectary (EFN)-bearing host plants. Consequently, HPI and EFN-bearing plants may experience non-additive benefits or costs when these groups co-occur. The outcomes of these interactions are likely to be influenced by variation in preferences among ants for honeydew vs. nectar. In this study, a test was made for non-additive effects on HPI and EFN-bearing plants resulting from sharing exotic ant guards. Preferences of the dominant exotic ant species for nectar vs. honeydew resources were also examined.

METHODS

Ant access, HPI and nectar availability were manipulated on the EFN-bearing shrub, Morinda citrifolia, and ant and HPI abundances, herbivory and plant growth were assessed. Ant-tending behaviours toward HPI across an experimental gradient of nectar availability were also tracked in order to investigate mechanisms underlying ant responses.

KEY RESULTS

The dominant ant species, Anoplolepis gracilipes, differed from less invasive ants in response to multiple mutualists, with reductions in plot-wide abundances when nectar was reduced, but no response to HPI reduction. Conversely, at sites where A. gracilipes was absent or rare, abundances of less invasive ants increased when nectar was reduced, but declined when HPI were reduced. Non-additive benefits were found at sites dominated by A. gracilipes, but only for M. citrifolia plants. Responses of HPI at these sites supported predictions of the non-additive cost model. Interestingly, the opposite non-additive patterns emerged at sites dominated by other ants.

CONCLUSIONS

It was demonstrated that strong non-additive benefits and costs can both occur when a plant and herbivore share mutualist partners. These findings suggest that broadening the community context of mutualism studies can reveal important non-additive effects and increase understanding of the dynamics of species interactions.

Interspecific competition delays recovery of Daphnia spp. populations from pesticide stress

Xenobiotics alter the balance of competition between species and induce shifts in community composition. However, little is known about how these alterations affect the recovery of sensitive taxa. We exposed zooplankton communities to esfenvalerate (0.03, 0.3, and 3 μg/L) in outdoor microcosms and investigated the long-term effects on populations of Daphnia spp. To cover a broad and realistic range of environmental conditions, we established 96 microcosms with different treatments of shading and periodic harvesting. Populations of Daphnia spp. decreased in abundance for more than 8 weeks after contamination at 0.3 and 3 μg/L esfenvalerate. The period required for recovery at 0.3 and 3 μg/L was more than eight and three times longer, respectively, than the recovery period that was predicted on the basis of the life cycle of Daphnia spp. without considering the environmental context. We found that the recovery of sensitive Daphnia spp. populations depended on the initial pesticide survival and the related increase of less sensitive, competing taxa. We assert that this increase in the abundance of competing species, as well as sub-lethal effects of esfenvalerate, caused the unexpectedly prolonged effects of esfenvalerate on populations of Daphnia spp. We conclude that assessing biotic interactions is essential to understand and hence predict the effects and recovery from toxicant stress in communities.

Household energy consumption: Community context and the fuelwood transition

We examine the influence of community context on change over time in households' use of non-wood fuels. Our theoretical framework builds on sociological concepts in order to study energy consumption at the micro-level. The framework emphasizes the importance of nonfamily organizations and services in the local community as determinants of the transition from use of fuelwood to use of alternative fuels. We use multilevel longitudinal data on household fuel choice and community context from rural Nepal to provide empirical tests of our theoretical model. Results reveal that increased exposure to nonfamily organizations in the local community increases the use of alternative fuels. The findings illustrate key features of human impacts on the local environment and motivate greater incorporation of social organization into research on environmental change.

Community-level HIV risk behaviors and HIV prevalence among women and men in Zimbabwe

Most studies on HIV risk in sub-Saharan Africa focus on individual-level sociodemographic and behavioral correlates of risk. Only recently have researchers and programmers considered the context within which individuals live. This study uses the 2005-6 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey to examine the correlation between the prevalence of HIV at the community level and the prevalence of HIV risk-taking behaviors. Results show that women and men living in communities with higher HIV prevalence in the opposite sex are at increased risk of HIV. In addition, rural women and men living in communities with greater premarital and nonmarital sex are at greater risk of HIV. Finally, HIV prevalence is higher among women and men living in urban areas with higher intimate partner violence. Programs should address community-level social norms that make high-risk behaviors acceptable and thus increase all women and men's risk of HIV, not just those engaged in high-risk behaviors.

Capturing Community Context of Human Response to Forest Disturbance by Insects: A Multi-Method Assessment

The socioeconomic and environmental features of local places (community context) influence the relationship between humans and their physical environment. In times of environmental disturbance, this community context is expected to influence human perceptual and behavioral responses. Residents from nine Colorado communities experiencing a large outbreak of mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) were surveyed in 2007. Multiple analytic methods including ordinary least squares regression and multilevel modeling techniques were used to evaluate a community-context conceptual model of factors influencing individual actions in response to forest disturbance by beetles. Results indicated that community biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics had important impacts on participation in beetle-related actions and influenced the relationships of individual-level variables in the conceptual model with beetle-related activities. Our findings have implications for natural resource management and policy related to forest disturbances, and for developing a methodology appropriate to measure the general community context of human-environment interactions.

The Community Substance Use Environment: The Development and Predictive Ability of a Multi-method and Multiple-reporter Measure

This study tested the feasibility and utility of developing a multiple-method and multiple-reporter measure that describes the community substance use environment. Data on community-level norms and availability of substances were reported by 5,261 students and 181 prevention-focused community leaders involved in the 28 PROSPER Project communities between 2002-2005. Additionally, locations of alcohol and tobacco outlets were geocoded. Initially, these four subscales were aggregated to measure the community substance use environment. Analyses demonstrated this measure was associated with community rates of adolescent reported cigarette use, but it was not associated with community rates of adolescent reported alcohol use. Further analyses tested the relative strength of the four different subscales in predicting rates of student use. Implications of these results for the field of community-based prevention are discussed, as well as limitations and future directions.

Geographic clustering of underage drinking and the influence of community characteristics

The aim of this paper was to examine the extent to which underage drinking clusters geographically in a sample of communities, and to investigate the manner in which community-level contexts are related to this process. We used data from a randomized community trial of underage drinking to provide the first quantitative estimates of the magnitude of the geographic clustering of underage drinking based upon pairwise odds ratios (PWORs). The Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Randomized Community Trial provided data from repeated cross-sectional samples of youth aged 14-20 from 68 communities surveyed in 2004, 2006, and 2007 (n=18,730). Past 30-day drinking, binge drinking, getting drunk, experiencing non-violent consequences as a result of drinking and making a purchase attempt all significantly clustered within-communities with PWORs ranging from 1.05 to 1.21. After adjustment for individual-level characteristics, results remained relatively unchanged. However, there was evidence that the magnitude of the clustering varied as a function of neighborhood disadvantage, neighborhood disorder, and family structure. Clustering of drunkenness and experiencing non-violent consequences as a result of drinking was greatest in the least economically disadvantaged and least disordered communities with the greatest percentage of married-couple families. The clustering of making a purchase attempt, however, was greatest in more disordered communities, specifically the largest communities with the highest degree of residential mobility and housing density. These findings that clustering of underage drinking behaviors varies by community context has the potential for identifying the types of communities to target for underage drinking behavior-specific preventive interventions.

Mammography facilities are accessible, so why is utilization so low?

OBJECTIVE

This study examines new socio-ecological variables reflecting community context as predictors of mammography use.

METHODS

The conceptual model is a hybrid of traditional health-behavioral and socio-ecological constructs with an emphasis on spatial interaction among women and their environments, differentiating between several levels of influence for community context. Multilevel probability models of mammography use are estimated. The study sample includes 70,129 women with traditional Medicare fee-for-service coverage for inpatient and outpatient services, drawn from the SEER-Medicare linked data. The study population lives in heterogeneous California, where mammography facilities are dense but utilization rates are low.

RESULTS

Several contextual effects have large significant impacts on the probability of mammography use. Women living in areas with higher proportions of elderly in poverty are 33% less likely to use mammography. However, dually eligible women living in these poor areas are 2% more likely to use mammography than those without extra assistance living in these areas. Living in areas with higher commuter intensity, higher violent crime rates, greater land use mix (urbanicity), or more segregated Hispanic communities exhibit -14%, -1%, -6%, and -3% (lower) probability of use, respectively. Women living in segregated American Indian communities or in communities where more elderly women live alone exhibit 16% and 12% (higher) probability of use, respectively. Minority women living in more segregated communities by their minority are more likely to use mammography, suggesting social support, but this is significant for Native Americans only. Women with disability as their original reason for entitlement are found 40% more likely to use mammography when they reside in communities with high commuter intensity, suggesting greater ease of transportation for them in these environments.

CONCLUSIONS

Socio-ecological variables reflecting community context are important predictors of mammography use in insured elderly populations, often with larger magnitudes of effect than personal characteristics such as race or ethnicity (-3% to -7%), age (-2%), recent address change (-7%), disability (-5%) or dual eligibility status (-1%). Better understanding of community factors can enhance cancer control efforts.