Determinants of Telehealth Service Use among Mental Health Patients: A Case of Rural Louisiana.

The COVID-19 pandemic decreased the in-person outpatient visits and accelerated the use of telehealth services among mental health patients. Our study investigated the sociodemographic and clinical correlates of the intensity of telehealth use among mental health patients residing in rural Louisiana, United States. The study sample included 7069 telehealth visits by 1115 unique patients encountered from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 at six mental health outpatient clinics managed by the Northeast Delta Human Services Authority (NEDHSA). We performed a negative binomial regression analysis with the intensity of service use as the outcome variable. Being younger, female, and more educated were associated with a higher number of telehealth visits. The prevalence of other chronic conditions increased telehealth visits by 10%. The telehealth service intensity varied across the nature of mental health diagnoses, with patients diagnosed with the schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders utilizing 15% fewer telehealth visits than patients diagnosed with depressive disorders. The promotion of telehealth services among mental health patients in the rural setting might require the elimination of the digital divide with a particular focus on the elderly, less educated, and those with serious mental health illnesses such as schizophrenia and psychotic disorders.

Impact of the Federal Conservation Program Participation on Conservation Practice Adoption Intensity in Louisiana, USA.

Conservation practices focusing on improving the soil and water quality of working lands are implemented across the United States, supported partially through the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service cost-share or incentive payment programs. We assess whether participation in federal conservation support programs induces a change in the number of conservation practices adopted by farmers. We also identify the factors that affect the adoption intensity of different best management practices. We use survey data collected from Louisiana farmers and estimate models using the matching method and Poisson quasi-likelihood model. We find that participation in the cost-share or incentive program leads to an increase in the number of conservation practices on the farms. Similarly, the use of precision technology application and farm being integrated are likely to have a higher number of on-farm conservation practices. Results have implications for federal working lands conservation support programs in the United States.

Impact of Work Value Awareness on Self-Rated Physical Health of Rural-to-Urban Migrant Workers in China.

We used data based on the China Labor-Force Dynamics Survey 2016 to examine the relationship between the work value awareness and the physical health of rural-to-urban migrant workers. The work value awareness was characterized by five dimensions: awareness of the emotional value, social value, respect value, ability value and interest value. Physical health was measured by a self-rated health assessment. The results from an IV-ordered probit model show that the awareness of work value has a statistically significant impact on the self-rated physical health of rural-to-urban migrant workers. The results also show that the impacts of work value awareness on rural-to-urban migrant workers' physical health are heterogeneous to genders and ages. Mental health plays a mediating role between the awareness of work value and the physical health of rural-to-urban migrant workers. It is beneficial for rural-to-urban migrant workers to improve awareness of the value of work to enhance their physical health. The findings of this paper have policy implications for improving the health and welfare of Chinese rural-to-urban migrant workers as well as temporary migrants to cities in many developing countries.

Impact of Credit Constraints from Formal Financial Institutions on Rural Residents' Health in China.

This is the first study in China that looks at the impact of credit constraints from formal financial institutions on Chinese rural residents' health. We use the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) data collected by the Annual Household Survey Office of Integration of Urban and Rural in the National Bureau of Statistics in 2014. We measure rural residents' health status with self-rated health assessment and the number of sick days in 2013. The results obtained from using the ordered probit model show that, in general, credit constraints from formal financial institutions significantly and negatively affect the self-rated health of Chinese rural residents. When an endogeneity issue is addressed using the instrumental variable (IV) approach, this paper's results are still robust. The results also show that the impact of credit constraints from formal financial institutions on rural residents' self-rated health is significant in male, female, married, and unmarried sub-groups. Further, we find that credit constraints from formal financial institutions impact rural residents' health through income and economic vulnerability. The findings have implications for preventing rural residents from falling into a health trap due to credit constraints from formal financial institutions.

Migration, Remittance, and Adoption of Conservation Practices.

Temporary migration and the resulting flow of fund in terms of remittance has been one of the major sources of financing in developing countries. However, little is known about the role of remittance receipt by households on the adoption of environmental-friendly practices in the agricultural production system. We use the three-stage least squares (3-SLS) regression method to analyze the data obtained from face-to-face interview surveys of 338 Nepali households to understand the impact of migration and remittance on the adoption of conservation practices. Our analysis does not show the direct impact of remittance on the number of soil and water conservation practices adoption, but migration has a significant negative effect. Other variables positively affecting the adoption of conservation practices are agriculture as the main source of income, perceived notion that water quality is bad, and better utilization of existing agricultural infrastructures. Income and the perceived notion that productivity quality of soil is bad negatively affect conservation practices adoption. Farm households facing labor shortage resulting from out-migration should be assisted by providing cost-share or incentive payment to adopt readily available, effective, low labor-intensive, and low-cost conservation practices in Nepal or elsewhere in similar remittance-dependent developing countries.

Food Safety Risk Information-Seeking Intention of WeChat Users in China.

Consumers' food safety risk information-seeking behavior plays a vital role in improving their food quality and safety awareness and preventing food safety risks. Based on the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model (RISP), this paper empirically analyzes the food safety risk information-seeking intention of consumers in WeChat and influencing factors under the impact of food safety incidents. We use data from 774 WeChat users and apply the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. We also conduct multigroup analysis with demographic characteristics as moderating variables. The results demonstrated that: (1) Risk perception (p ≤ 0.01) has direct significant positive effects on consumers' intention to seek food safety information. Besides, higher risk perception (p ≤ 0.01) regarding food safety risks will make people feel more anxious and threatened, and then expand the gap between the information they need and the relevant knowledge they actually have (p ≤ 0.1), which will further stimulate them to seek more information (p ≤ 0.05). (2) Informational subjective norms (p ≤ 0.01) can not only directly affect consumers' information-seeking about food safety, but also indirectly affect consumers' intention through information insufficiency (p ≤ 0.01). (3) The more consumers trust the relevant channels (p ≤ 0.01), the stronger their intention to search for food safety risk information. Moreover, the multiple-group analysis also shows that the effects of consumers' gender, age, educational background, and average monthly earnings are different among different groups. Furthermore, implications are put forward for food safety risk communication efforts in China.

Implications of poultry litter usage for electricity production.

Poultry litter has the potential to cause water quality problems if it is not applied properly to the land as a crop nutrient. Based on the data available from a survey of Louisiana poultry producers, we find that it is not cost effective to transport poultry litter farther than 38.6 km from the production facilities for crop nutrient purposes. This limited breakeven distance restricts the movement of poultry litter and points to a need to identify an alternative disposal method. We review common methods of producing electricity from poultry litter. We identify the minimum cost solution for assigning poultry litter when one large or three small electric reactors are chosen to be built for electricity production in the poultry production region. We calculate the cost-return analysis of building electric reactors and expand it to find the economic impact of starting such electric reactors to the local and regional economies.

Adoption of Sustainable Agriculture Practices among Farmers in Kentucky, USA.

Promoting the sustainable agricultural practices at an individual farm level is essential to ensure agricultural sustainability. This study analyzed whether and how various factors related to farm or farmers' characteristics influence the adoption intensity of sustainable agriculture practices. We used a negative binomial regression model to fit the data collected from a mail survey of farmers in Kentucky, USA. Our results showed that the adoption intensity of sustainable agriculture practices varied significantly among agricultural districts in Kentucky. Farmers who grew row crops, had irrigation facilities, and were in favor of crop diversification were significantly more likely than their respective counterparts to adopt more sustainable agriculture practices. Similarly, having a college education and participating in the Tobacco Buyout Program also positively and significantly affected the intensity of adopting sustainable agriculture practices among Kentucky farmers. In contrast, a lack of adequate knowledge about sustainable farming and an unfamiliarity with technology significantly and negatively related to less adoption of sustainable agriculture practices.

Awareness and Adoption of Soil and Water Conservation Technologies in a Developing Country: A Case of Nabajuzi Watershed in Central Uganda.

Soil and water conservation technologies have been widely available in most parts of Uganda. However, not only has the adoption rate been low but also many farmers seem not to be aware of these technologies. This study aims at identifying the factors that influence awareness and adoption of soil and water conservation technologies in Nabajuzi watershed in central Uganda. A bivariate probit model was used to examine farmers' awareness and adoption of soil and water conservation technologies in the watershed. We use data collected from the interview of 400 households located in the watershed to understand the factors affecting the awareness and adoption of these technologies in the study area. Findings indicate that the likelihood of being aware and adopting the technologies are explained by the age of household head, being a tenant, and number of years of access to farmland. To increase awareness and adoption of technologies in Uganda, policymakers may expedite the process of land titling as farmers may feel secure about landholding and thus adopt these technologies to increase profitability and productivity in the long run. Incentive payments to farmers residing in the vulnerable region to adopt these considered technologies may help to alleviate soil deterioration problems in the affected area.

Adapting Nepal's polio eradication programme.

PROBLEM: Many countries have weak disease surveillance and immunization systems. The elimination of polio creates an opportunity to use staff and assets from the polio eradication programme to control other vaccine-preventable diseases and improve disease surveillance and immunization systems. APPROACH: In 2003, the active surveillance system of Nepal's polio eradication programme began to report on measles and neonatal tetanus cases. Japanese encephalitis and rubella cases were added to the surveillance system in 2004. Staff from the programme aided the development and implementation of government immunization policies, helped launch vaccination campaigns, and trained government staff in reporting practices and vaccine management. LOCAL SETTING: Nepal eliminated indigenous polio in 2000, and controlled outbreaks caused by polio importations between 2005 and 2010. RELEVANT CHANGES: In 2014, the surveillance activities had expanded to 299 sites, with active surveillance for measles, rubella and neonatal tetanus, including weekly visits from 15 surveillance medical officers. Sentinel surveillance for Japanese encephalitis consisted of 132 sites. Since 2002, staff from the eradication programme have helped to introduce six new vaccines and helped to secure funding from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Staff have also assisted in responding to other health events in the country. LESSON LEARNT: By expanding the activities of its polio eradication programme, Nepal has improved its surveillance and immunization systems and increased vaccination coverage of other vaccine-preventable diseases. Continued donor support, a close collaboration with the Expanded Programme on Immunization, and the retention of the polio eradication programme's skilled workforce were important for this expansion.

Geographic information systems (GIS) based model of dairy manure transportation and application with environmental quality consideration.

Survey information was used to develop a minimum cost spatial dairy manure transportation model where environmental quality and crop nutrient requirements were treated as constraints. The GIS model incorporated land use types, exact locations of dairy farms and farmlands, road networks, and distances from each dairy farm to receiving farmlands to identify dairy manure transportation routes that minimized costs relative to environmental and other constraints. Our analyses indicated that the characteristics of dairy manure, its bulk and relatively low primary N, P(2)O(5) and K(2)O nutrient levels limit the distribution areas or distances between the farms and the land over which the manure can be economically spread. Physical properties of the land limit the quantities of nutrients that can be applied because of excess nutrient buildup in soil and potential to harm nearby waterbodies and downstream people and places. Longer distances between dairy and farmland favor the use of commercial fertilizers due to the high cost of manure transportation. At $0.08 per ton per km transportation cost, the optimal cut-off distances for dairy manure application is 30km for N and 15km each for P(2)O(5) and K(2)O consistent rules. An analysis of dairy manure application to different crop types suggest that, on average, 1ha of land requires 61 tons of dairy manure to meet the recommended N, P(2)O(5) and K(2)O needs.

Country report: Broiler industry and broiler litter-related problems in the southeastern United States.

This report describes the development of the broiler litter problem in the southeastern United States, including the economic opportunity and environmental challenges brought to the region by the industry. Through an analysis applied to the State of Georgia, land application of litter as a disposal alternative is examined along with its associated benefits. The analysis indicates that litter could be transported economically up to 256 km for cropland application. Excessive broiler litter production in a few concentrated regions is expected to stimulate the development of alternative approaches to broiler litter management, such as electricity generation.

Economics of dairy waste use as fertilizer in central Texas.

Dairy manure is an unavoidable natural, but negative, byproduct of milk production. Its nitrogen, phosphate, and potash contents represent a potential substitute for commercial fertilizers on field crops. In the absence of subsidies, manure transportation and land application costs limit its utilization as a substitute for chemical fertilizer. The results from a study of the economics of manure use in Central Texas suggest that, at the current costs for loading, hauling, and spreading, dairy manure cannot be economically transported from surplus to deficit areas within the study area. The estimated breakeven transport distance for manure application to four crops varied from 28 to 41 km; however, the distances between manure-surplus and manure-deficit counties in the study region varied from 40 to 90 km. An analysis of potential subsidies paid by the government or dairy farmers showed that the breakeven distance could increase by up to 30 km. A decrease in the assumed moisture content of the manure from 50% to 40% is shown to increase the breakeven distance by 10 km. The study suggests that dairy manure loading, transportation, and land application, with appropriate subsidies or reductions in moisture content, has the potential to be profitably substituted for chemical fertilizers.

Evaluation of broiler litter transportation in northern Alabama, USA.

The profitability of using broiler litter as a source of crop nutrients was calculated using a phosphorus-consistent litter application rule. A ton of litter can cost effectively be transported up to 164 miles from the production facility. A cost-minimizing phosphorus-consistent transportation model developed to meet the nutrient needs of 29 counties in northern Alabama revealed that not all of the litter can be utilized in the region. The total cost increased when transportation of the litter out of the heavily surplus counties was prioritized. Total litter use was minimally affected by changes in chemical fertilizer prices. Shadow prices indicated the robustness of the model.