School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts

Since 1982, California has attempted to pass a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB). To date, none have been successful. This study describes the advocacy groups and the strategies and policy arguments used by stakeholders to support or oppose statewide SSB tax legislation in California. The article uses the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to identify coalition groups and their members as well as examine the strategies and arguments used in California’s statewide SSB tax policy debates between 1999 and 2018. We use a mixed methods analysis with a predominantly qualitative approach to identify stakeholders involved in the SSB tax policymaking process and explore their policy arguments and advocacy strategies to advance their policy positions. Data consist of 11 California legislative bills (94 documents) and 138 newspaper articles. SSB tax policy debate did receive media attention. We identified two advocacy coalitions involved in the debate: a public health coalition and an industry coalition. The public health coalition focused on arguments about the health consequences and financial benefits of SSB taxes. The industry coalition responded with arguments that focused on how SSB taxes would harm the economy. Both coalitions used various strategies to advance desired outcomes. The public health coalition used advocacy strategies such as media and research evidence. The industry coalition used advocacy strategies such as preemption, alliances, and financial resources. Although SSB taxation has faced substantial challenges at the state level in California, advocacy coalitions can gain insight from policymaker’s experiences involved in previous legislation to inform future efforts to pass obesity prevention-related policies.

Background

Wolbachia bacteria are widely distributed throughout terrestrial arthropod species. These bacteria can manipulate reproduction and influence the vector competence of their hosts. Recently, Wolbachia have been integrated into vector control programmes for mosquito management. A number of supergroups and strains exist for Wolbachia, and they have yet to be characterized for many mosquito species. In this study, we examined Wolbachia prevalence and their phylogenetic relationship to other Wolbachia, using mosquitoes collected in Merced County in the Central Valley of California.

Methods

Adult mosquitoes were collected from 85 sites in Merced County, California in 2017 and 2018. Traditional and quantitative PCR were used to investigate the presence or absence and the density of Wolbachia, using Wolbachia-specific 16S rRNA and Wolbachia-surface protein (wsp) genes. The supergroup of Wolbachia was determined, and Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) by sequencing five housekeeping genes (coxA, gatB, ftsZ, hcpA and fbpA) was also used to determine Wolbachia supergroup as well as strain.

Results

Over 7100 mosquitoes of 12 species were collected: Aedes melanimon, Ae. nigromaculis, Ae.vexans, Ae. aegypti, Culex pipiens, Cx. stigmatosoma, Cx. tarsalis, Anopheles franciscanus, An. freeborni, An. punctipennis, Culiseta incidens and Cs. inornata. Eight showed evidence of Wolbachia. To our knowledge, this study is the first to report detection of Wolbachia in five of these species (Ae. melanimon, Cx. stigmatosoma, Cx. tarsalis, Cs. incidens and Cs. inornata). Culex pipiens and Cx. stigmatosoma had a high frequency and density of Wolbachia infection, which grouped into supergroup B; Cs. inornata clustered with supergroup A. MLST comparisons identified Cx. pipiens and Cx. stigmatosoma as wPip strain type 9 supergroup B. Six species had moderate to low (< 14%) frequencies of Wolbachia. Four species were negative, Ae. nigromaculis, An. franciscanus, An. freeborni and Ae. aegypti.

Conclusions

New records of Wolbachia detection were found in mosquitoes from Merced County, California. Culex stigmatosoma and Cs. inornata were new records for Wolbachia supergroup B and A, respectively. Other species with Wolbachia occurred with low frequency and low density. Detection of Wolbachia in mosquitoes can be used to inform potential vector control applications. Future study of Wolbachia within Cx. stigmatosoma and Cs. inornata in California and through the range of these species could further explore Wolbachia infection in these two species.

Objective: The San Joaquin Valley (SJV) exceeds the state and national standards for ozone (O₃). This study investigates whether short term exposure to O₃ is associated with asthma emergency department (ED) visits. Methods: We identified 1101 ED visits in June-September of 2015 in SJV, California, who lived within 15 km of active air monitors. Conditional logistic regression models were used to obtain the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) associated with an interquartile (IQR) increase in ozone. We explored potential effect modification by sex (female, and male), race (White, Black, and Hispanic), age (2-5, 6-18, 19-40, 41-64 and >= 65), and by county (Merced, Madera, Kings, Fresno and Kern). Results: An interquartile range (18.1 ppb) increase in O₃ exposure three days before an asthma attack (lag 3) was associate with a 6.6% [OR: 1.066 (95% CI: 1.032, 1.082)] increase in the odds of having an asthma ED visit. The overall ORs differed across age groups and races/ethnicities, with strongest for children aged 6–18 years [OR: 1.219 (95% CI: 1.159, 1.280)] and adults 19-40 years [OR: 1.102 (95% CI: 1.053, 1.154)], and Blacks [OR: 1.159 (95% CI: 1.088, 1.236)], respectively. O₃ exposure was not positively associated with asthma ED visits for Whites while it was for other underrepresented groups. Fresno had the highest number of asthma ED visits and positive association among all five counties. Conclusion: We found that O₃ exposure is associated with asthma ED visits in the SJV.

Few studies have examined whether the benefits of education for health differ across sociodemographic subgroups. We investigated whether educational attainment is associated with cardiovascular health, as measured by the Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) score, and whether the association differs by demographic characteristics. Data were obtained from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study (N=8,759 participants; mean age=63.8).

We used linear regression analyses with interactions by sex, race, childhood socioeconomic status (SES), and geography. Socially vulnerable groups (i.e., men from low childhood SES backgrounds, White people from low childhood SES backgrounds, Black people from low childhood SES backgrounds) benefitted less from each additional year of education than socially advantaged groups in predicting LS7 scores. However, we did not find evidence that differential returns extended to every group. Findings suggest that the inequalities present in the education system may further exacerbate the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged.