Florida Counties Research Articles

Treatment Availability and Overdose Numbers in Florida Counties

Substance abuse rates within the United States have skyrocketed over the past few years, leading to increased costs to society and ultimately to overdose deaths. Most adults who suffer from a substance use disorder also suffer from a mental health disorder, which makes treatment much more difficult. Studies have also shown that there are regional differences in substance use, overdose deaths and the locations of substance use treatment centers. Some of the relationships between these variables have been examined, but little is known about the relationship between the prevalence of treatment and how it relates to the rates of overdose deaths. This study seeks to examine how the number of mental health providers, substance use treatment centers and portion of the county living in rural areas affects the overdose death rates within counties in Florida. As the opioid crisis continues to grow, it is imperative to determine effective policies to treat substance use disorders. As Florida is a largely diverse state containing large cities, the results of this study will help determine if further studies around the country should be conducted. Implications for policy and practitioners will also be discussed.

Integrated hierarchical models to inform management of transitional habitat and the recovery of a habitat specialist

AbstractQuantifying the contribution of habitat dynamics relative to intrinsic population processes in regulating species persistence remains an ongoing challenge in ecological and applied conservation. Understanding these drivers and their relationship is essential for managing habitat‐dependent species, especially those that specialize in transitional habitats. Limitations in the ability of natural disturbance to mediate transitional habitat dynamics have resulted in a decline in early‐ and mid‐successional vegetation structure and prompted the need for aggressive habitat management to replace natural perturbations and increase habitat structural complexity. We describe a collaborative effort with a group of independent land managers to design an adaptive management program for restoring an imperiled ecosystem and recovering declining populations of an endemic habitat specialist. We developed a set of integrated, hierarchical models to estimate management‐mediated transition rates among vegetation classes in two dominant scrub communities and the species response (local colonization and extinction probabilities) as a function of habitat state. Models were fit using a long‐term data set of habitat and occupancy observations from 361 Florida scrub‐jay territories across two Florida counties. Occupancy model results correspond closely to previous approaches of estimating differential survival and reproductive success associated with habitat conditions, with highest colonization and lowest extinction rates estimated for those habitat states found to have the highest rates of survival and reproduction. In addition to offering an innovative approach for jointly modeling habitat and species population dynamics, the program we describe will also be of interest from a management perspective by providing guidance for developing collaborative, adaptive management frameworks from the ground up. We engaged land managers via workshops to specify objectives and desired state‐variable conditions, identify management alternatives, and elicit consensus opinions on model parameters. Treating expert opinions as pseudo‐observations to define Dirichlet priors allowed us to make use of existing management knowledge. Formal learning was then accumulated by updating transition probability estimates as management activities were implemented over the study period. We believe this adaptive management framework provides a useful approach for increasing our understanding of complex ecological relationships and hope that it will be adopted by others who have interest in informing management and conservation efforts.

How Individuals Hypothetically and Realistically Respond to Media Messages About Severe Weather

This study sought to measure how risk perception and behavior intention of residents in coastal counties in Southern Alabama, Mississippi, and Northern Florida may have changed before and after Hurricane Michael in October 2018. The aim of this research project was to compare individual responses to impending disasters before the hurricane and compare them to responses in areas hit by the storm. The authors used an experiment to examine how visual cues and media messages were interpreted by residents and their reported influence on an individual's risk perception and decision-making in the situation. With roughly 1,030 respondents, results indicated that live video was most likely to motivate respondents to prepare activities after the storm, which was in the opposite direction of those respondents answering before the hurricane struck. The authors hope the findings of this study can help broadcasters better target their messages as they move forward.

Restructuring the Eligibility Policies of the Child Care and Development Fund to Address Benefits Cliffs and Affordability

This paper explores how the current eligibility policies of the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) create benefits cliffs that act as barriers to economic self-sufficiency. By examining Florida data and policies, the authors demonstrate how the program’s existing co-payment schedule affects the same hypothetical family living in two contrasting Florida counties: one with state median living costs and one with high living costs. The authors find that the CCDF income eligibility exit threshold is too low, particularly in high-cost counties. That occurs because the exit threshold is based on the state median income, as opposed to more local measures that better approximate and reflect local cost of living. The authors propose and calculate the additional family and government costs of two alternative CCDF phase-out designs, which would remove the CCDF benefits cliffs. Both proposed alternatives feature smooth phase-out schedules that align the subsidies with the local cost of childcare, thereby reducing barriers to economic mobility unintentionally created by government policies.

Staying Afloat: Planning and Managing Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Risk in Florida’s Coastal Counties

Climate change and sea level rise present significant risks to coastal governments’ fiscal and service solvency. Current lack of focus on climate change by the U.S. federal and some state governments pressures coastal governments to develop tractable solutions to manage localized risks. This research integrates adaptive governance and capital planning literatures to develop an adaptive risk management framework. Heeding the call for research of coastal county actions to plan for and respond to climate change, we conduct content analysis of planning documents, financial reports, meeting minutes, media reports, and other documentation of all coastal counties in Florida to quantify government efforts to address climate change. Risk management practices are hierarchically categorized by focus area, risk type, and tactic and placed within the adaptive risk management process framework. A well-functioning adaptive risk management process can redefine vague climate change risks into knowable, tractable problems to address.

Sanctuary Cities and Counties for the Unborn: The Use of Resolutions and Ordinances to Restrict Abortion Access

So far at least five states—Illinois, New Mexico, Texas, North Carolina, and Utah—have passed resolutions and ordinances declaring localities as sanctuaries for the unborn. Santa Rosa County in Florida is poised to be the first county in Florida to be designated as a pro-life sanctuary. Some localities declare life begins at conception, ban abortion services (including access to emergency contraception), classify abortion as murder with malice aforethought, label pro-choice organizations as criminal enterprises, and create civil causes of action against abortion providers and those who assist women in obtaining an abortion. Most of the localities that have enacted the ordinances and resolutions have small populations and do not have abortion clinics. This article examines the sanctuary movement across the United States. It discusses the intersection of romantic paternalism with reproductive jurisprudence, the emergence and proliferation of TRAP laws, and the resolutions and ordinances making up the sanctuary movement.

Professional Development Needs of Early-Career Extension Agents Beyond the First Year: Florida County Extension Director Perspectives

Professional Development Needs of Early-Career Extension Agents Beyond the First Year: Florida County Extension Director Perspectives

Abstract PO-004: Association between county-level socioeconomic characteristics and health indicators with COVID-19 deaths in Florida

Abstract COVID-19 has exposed the long standing racial health disparities and social inequities in the United States. It has also brought into focus the need of the vulnerable communities including racial and ethnic minority groups. health care reforms. The purpose of this analysis is to investigate county-level COVID-19 death rates with key socioeconomic and health indicators using correlation analysis. Death rates are calculated using deaths that occurred in Florida (n = 7,022 deaths) between March 1, 2020 and July 31, 2020. We hypothesize that counties with higher uninsured and older people have higher COVID-19 death rates. Data on COVID-19 county statistics is obtained from Florida Department of Health. County-level health indicators are obtained from Florida Health Community Health Assessment Resource Tool Set (CHARTS) and the County Health Rankings and Roadmap program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Spearman rank correlation, a non-parametric method, is applied to measure associations. We find that higher share of uninsured adults in a county is significantly associated with higher death rates from COVID-19. In addition, percent older than 65 is correlated death rates. However, contrary to other previous studies, we do not find a correlation between share of African Americans and death rates in Florida counties. Further, we do not find that death rates are correlated with measures of diabetes, smoking, and obesity. The policy implication of this investigation points to the vulnerability of communities without health insurance to the COVID-19 pandemic and the urgent need for health care reform. This research was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under the Award Number U54 MD007582. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. This research was also made possible by Grant Numbers U54CA233396, U54CA233444, & U54CA233465 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NCI. Citation Format: Gebre-Egziabher Kiros, Kira Gaddis. Association between county-level socioeconomic characteristics and health indicators with COVID-19 deaths in Florida [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Conference: Thirteenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2020 Oct 2-4. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(12 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-004.

Compound Risks of Hurricane Evacuation Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States.

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was extremely active and included, as of early November, six hurricanes that made landfall in the United States during the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. Such an event would necessitate a large‐scale evacuation, with implications for the trajectory of the pandemic. Here we model how a hypothetical hurricane evacuation from four counties in southeast Florida would affect COVID‐19 case levels. We find that hurricane evacuation increases the total number of COVID‐19 cases in both origin and destination locations; however, if transmission rates in destination counties can be kept from rising during evacuation, excess evacuation‐induced case numbers can be minimized by directing evacuees to counties experiencing lower COVID‐19 transmission rates. Ultimately, the number of excess COVID‐19 cases produced by the evacuation depends on the ability of destination counties to meet evacuee needs while minimizing virus exposure through public health directives. These results are relevant to disease transmission during evacuations stemming from additional climate‐related hazards such as wildfires and floods.

Evaluating the impact of mobility on COVID-19 pandemic with machine learning hybrid predictions

COVID-19 pandemic had expanded to the US since early 2020 and has caused nationwide economic loss and public health crisis. Until now, although the US has the most confirmed cases in the world and are still experiencing an increasing pandemic, several states insisted to re-open business activities and colleges while announced strict control measures. To provide a quantitative reference for official strategies, predicting the near future trend based on finer spatial resolution data and presumed scenarios are urgently needed. In this study, the first attempted COVID-19 case predicting model based on county-level demographic, environmental, and mobility data was constructed with multiple machine learning techniques and a hybrid framework. Different scenarios were also applied to selected metropolitan counties including New York City, Cook County in Illinois, Los Angeles County in California, and Miami-Dade County in Florida to assess the impact from lockdown, Phase I, and Phase III re-opening.Our results showed that, for selected counties, the mobility decreased substantially after the lockdown but kept increasing with an apparent weekly pattern, and the weekly pattern of mobility and infections implied high infections during the weekend. Meanwhile, our model was successfully built up, and the scenario assessment results indicated that, compared with Phase I re-opening, a 1-week and a 2-week lockdown could reduce 4%–29% and 15%–55% infections, respectively, in the future week, while 2-week Phase III re-opening could increase 16%–80% infections. We concluded that the mandatory orders in metropolitan counties such lockdown should last longer than one week, the effect could be observed. The impact of lockdown or re-opening was also county-dependent and varied with the local pandemic. In future works, we expect to involve a longer period of data, consider more county-dependent factors, and employ more sophisticated techniques to decrease the modeling uncertainty and apply it to counties nationally and other countries.

Spread of the Non-Native Neotropical Trap-Jaw Ant Odontomachus ruginodis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Florida

Trap-jaw ants, Odontomachus spp., are large, predaceous species with potent stings. The Neotropical trap-jaw ant, Odontomachus ruginodis, common throughout much of the West Indies, was first found in Florida in 1931. Whether O. ruginodis is native or exotic to Florida has remained uncertain. Here, I compiled published and unpublished records from 300 sites in Florida, including my own records from 112 sites, to examine the spread of O. ruginodis in Florida. Whereas the earliest Florida records of O. ruginodis were restricted to the southernmost part of the state, the known range has expanded progressively northward. This species is now known from 43 counties in Florida, as far north as Fernandina Beach (30.7°N), a few km from the Georgia border. This recent spread and its prevalence in human disturbed habitats, combined with an apparent lack of co-evolutionary history with a native predator of Odontomachus, support the supposition that O. ruginodis is not native to Florida. There appear to be no geographic or climatic barriers to prevent the spread of O. ruginodis into the panhandle area of Florida and further west along the Gulf Coast. As a result, more people may get an opportunity to experience the stings of O. ruginodis when they encounter them, for example, in urban and suburban gardens.

Establishment ofAedes(Ochlerotatus)scapularis(Diptera: Culicidae) in Mainland Florida, With Notes on the Ochlerotatus Group in the United States

Aedes scapularis (Rondani), a widespread neotropical vector mosquito species, has been included in the mosquito fauna of Florida on the basis of just three larval specimens that were collected in the middle Florida Keys in 1945. Here, we report numerous recent collections of immature and adult Ae. scapularis from multiple locations in two counties of southern Florida. These specimens represent the first records of Ae. scapularis from mainland Florida and the first records of the species in the state since the initial detection of the species 75 yr ago. Collections of both larvae and adults across several years indicate that Ae. scapularis is now established in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. These contemporary records of this species in Florida may represent novel dispersal and subsequent establishment events from populations outside the United States or a recent reemergence of undetected endemic populations. To confirm morphological identification of Ae. scapularis specimens from Florida, the DNA barcoding region of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI) was sequenced and compared to all other Ochlerotatus Group species from the United States, specifically Aedes condolescens Dyar and Knab (Diptera: Culicidae), Aedes infirmatus Dyar and Knab (Diptera: Culicidae), Aedes thelcter Dyar (Diptera: Culicidae), Aedes tortilis (Theobald) (Diptera: Culicidae), and Aedes trivittatus (Coquillett) (Diptera: Culicidae). Molecular assays and sequencing confirm morphological identification of Ae. scapularis specimens. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis of COI and ITS2 sequences place Florida Ae. scapularis in a distinct clade, but was unable to produce distinct clades for Florida specimens of Ae. condolescens and Ae. tortilis.

Sex Education Correlating with STI Rates Througout Counties in Florida

This study’s goal was to discover the impact that varying types of high school sex education curriculums had on the rate of which their alumni ages 19-27 in 2018 contracted bacterial sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) throughout counties in Florida. The study was able to establish results that communicated which programs were most effective in preventing the transmission of STDs in comparison to the ones that were least effective. A meta-analysis of the amount of bacterial STD cases in each of four different counties in Florida as well as their corresponding sex education curriculum was used to discover the paper’s outcome. The different curriculums analyzed in this paper include abstinence-only, abstinence-plus, and comprehensive. Abstinence-only based programs teach students that refraining from all sexual activity until marriage is the sole moral way of preventing STD transmission and generally does not go over other methods of contraceptives. Abstinence-Plus programs teach students about methods of contraception and how to prevent STDs, but still preach that remaining abstinent is the correct and moral route to go down. The results showed that Lafayette County and Martin County had the least amount of bacterial STD cases among their alumni ages 19-27 yet used the most strict program (abstinence-only), Orange County had the most amount of bacterial STD cases among their alumni and used the second most strict program(abstinence-plus), and Polk County’s amount of bacterial STD cases fell under Orange County but above Lafayette County and Martin County; however they used the least strict program (comprehensive).

Analyzing COVID-19 Impacts on Vehicle Travels and Daily Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Levels among Florida Counties

The COVID-19 outbreak and ensuing social distancing behaviors resulted in substantial reduction on traffic, making this a unique experiment on observing the air quality. Such an experiment is also supplemental to the smart city concept as it can help to identify whether there is a delay on air quality improvement during or after a sharp decline on traffic and to determine what, if any, factors are contributing to that time lag. As such, this study investigates the immediate impacts of COVID-19 causing abrupt declines on traffic and NO2 concentration in all Florida Counties through March 2020. Daily tropospheric NO2 concentrations were extracted from the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite and vehicle mile traveled (VMT) estimates were acquired from cell phone mobility records. It is observed that overall impacts of the COVID-19 response in Florida have started in the first half of the March 2020, two weeks earlier than the official stay-at-home orders, and resulted in 54.07% and 59.68% decrease by the end of the month on NO2 and VMT, respectively. Further, a cross-correlation based dependency analysis was conducted to analyze the similarities and associated time lag between 7-day moving averages of VMT and NO2 concentrations of the 67 counties. Although such reduction is unprecedented for both data sets, results indicate a strong correlation and this correlation increases with the identification of a time lag between VMT and NO2 concentration. Majority of the counties have no time lag between VMT and NO2 concentration; however, a cluster of South Florida counties presents earlier decrease on NO2 concentration compare to VMT, which indicates that the air quality improvements in those counties are not traffic related. Investigation on the socioeconomic factors indicates that population density and income level have no significant impact on the time lag between traffic and air quality improvements in light of COVID-19.

Changes in opioid prescribing after implementation of mandatory registration and proactive reports within California’s prescription drug monitoring program

Background: In 2016, California updated its prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP), adding two key features: automated proactive reports to prescribers and mandatory registration for prescribers and pharmacists. The effects of these changes on prescribing patterns have not yet been examined. We aimed to evaluate the joint effect of these two PDMP features on county-level prescribing practices in California. Methods: Using county-level quarterly data from 2012 to 2017, we estimated the absolute change associated with the implementation of these two PDMP features in seven prescribing indicators in California versus a control group comprising counties in Florida and Washington: opioid prescription rate per 1000 residents; patients’ mean daily opioid dosage in milligrams of morphine equivalents[MME]; prescribers’ mean daily MME prescribed; prescribers’ mean number of opioid prescriptions per day; percentage of patients getting >90 MME/day; percentage of days with overlapping prescriptions for opioids and benzodiazepines; multiple opioid provider episodes per 100,000 residents. Results: Proactive reports and mandatory registration were associated with a 7.7 MME decrease in patients’ mean daily opioid dose (95 %CI: -11.4, -2.9); a 1.8 decrease in the percentage of patients prescribed high-dose opioids (95 %CI: -2.3, -0.9); and a 6.3 MME decrease in prescribers’ mean daily dose prescribed (95 %CI: -10.0, -1.3). Conclusions: California’s implementation of these two PDMP features was associated with decreases in the total quantity of opioid MMEs prescribed, and indicators of patients prescribed high-dose opioids compared to states that had PDMP’s without these features. Rates of opioid prescribing and other high-risk prescribing patterns remained unchanged.

Assessing the conservation risk of Sphaerodactylus notatus, the U.S. herpetofaunal species most vulnerable to sea level rise

While climate change and sea level rise threaten species across the globe, species in low-lying coastal regions, such as South Florida, are projected to face particularly severe threats. One such species is the Florida reef gecko (Sphaerodactylus notatus), the only gecko native to the eastern U.S., and a highly understudied species that persists in heavily fragmented habitats of only three coastal Florida counties. To assess the conservation status of this species, we conducted surveys throughout South Florida to determine potential extirpations from historic localities and to delimit S. notatus’ current distribution. We also estimated the level of threat S. notatus faces from sea level rise relative to other species by analyzing sea level risk of all herpetofauna in the U.S. We detected geckos in only 41% of sites with appropriate habitat, and in only 65% of historic localities. Geckos were only present within 1.2 km from the coast, and the minimum 2.2 m of sea level rise already expected based on current carbon emissions will place 85% of suitable S. notatus habitat under water. Our findings were used to update the conservation risk of S. notatus according to IUCN and Florida guidelines for listing threatened and endangered species, and suggest this species now fits the criteria to warrant listing. In comparison to all other U.S. herpetofaunal species, we found that S. notatus is the most at risk from sea level rise due its fidelity to low-lying coastal habitats.

Using Behavioral Experimentation to Understand the Social Structure of the Little Fire Ant (Wasmannia auropunctata) in Florida

Wasmannia auropunctata (LFA) is a small, yellow ant that is native to the Central and South America that has become a globally invasive species by acting as an agricultural pest in addition to being ecologically destructive in non-native regions. One trait thought to contribute to successful invasion of ants is unicoloniality, which is characterized by lack of aggression among workers and queens from different colonies. This results in colonies becoming effectively borderless, expanding as a single, massive colony across large geographic distance. These ants are known to be unicolonial in some parts of their range, but no studies to date have assessed unicoloniality in Florida populations. To determine whether LFA populations across Florida were members of a unicolonial lineage, we carried out integration trials using 27 colonies from 6 sites in 3 Florida counties. Approximately 20 workers from different colonies were placed together in an arena; after 24 hours they were evaluated to determine whether or not they integrated. Out of a total of 42 trials, 17 (40%) resulted in full integration and 25 (60%) did not. Colonies that were collected within 9 km of each other integrated, and ants from colonies beyond that distance did not integrate. These results suggest that the little fire is not unicolonial in Florida on a large scale, but perhaps on a smaller scale. Future studies should attempt to use colonies from more counties and incorporate genetic data to determine relatedness among these ants.

Hurricane Michael and adverse birth outcomes

Background: Hurricanes and natural disasters are often associated with increases in adverse birth outcomes, due to associated stress, lack of access to medical care, and exposures to environmental toxicants, including harmful algae, chemical spills, and carbon monoxide.Methods: Vital statistics data were used to assess changes in birth outcomes in Florida counties affected by Hurricane Michael (October 2018). Birth outcomes, including low birthweight (LBW; <2500 g) and preterm birth (PTB; <37 weeks' gestation), were compared for one-year periods before and after Michael, and across counties. Paired t-tests and linear regression were used to assess change in number of births. Logistic regression models were used for binary outcomes, and a semi-parametric model and cumulative logistic regression were used for antenatal care (ANC) utilization, adjusting for maternal characteristics.Results: Number of births in the affected area was not statistically different before and after Michael. Change in births was not significantly different across counties affected with differing severity by Michael. In counties most affected, proportion of LBW births rose after Michael (8.2% vs. 9.5%, p<0.01), while PTB did not change (13.75% vs. 13.60%, p=0.79). ANC utilization decreased after Michael, including delayed first ANC visit, decreased proportion of women receiving ANC during pregnancy, and decreased Kotelchuck index. Adjusting for covariates, Odds ratio (OR) for LBW was 1.217 (95%CI: 1.082, 1.367, p<0.01), and OR for PTB was 0.994 (95%CI: 0.898, 1.100, p=0.91); first ANC visit was delayed 0.137 month (95%CI: 0.08, 0.19, p<0.01), OR of receiving any ANC was 0.65 (95%CI: 0.50, 0.86, p<0.01), OR of more adequate ANC was 0.79 (95%CI: 0.738, 0.842, p<0.01). Conclusions: Hurricane Michael was associated with increased risk of late and inadequate ANC and LBW. Ongoing efforts include characterization of potential Hurricane-associated factors which may have contributed to adverse outcomes, including exposures to chemical stressors including harmful algal blooms and carbon monoxide.

The Adoption of Local Option Fuel Taxes: Evidence From Florida Counties

This study examines the time to adoption of local option fuel taxes (LOFTs) among Florida counties from 1972 to 2015. Florida county governments are authorized to levy up to 12 cents of LOFTs in the form of three separate instruments. Using a Cox proportional hazards model, this study finds that additional LOFT instruments in place affect time to adoption and that the factors associated with the adoption of LOFTs differ from those of local option sales taxes. Additionally, there is evidence that suggests the legal structure of LOFTs affects both the time to adoption and the relationship with other LOFTs.

Sea Level Rise, Homeownership, and Residential Real Estate Markets in South Florida

This article builds on a small but rapidly growing body of research that seeks to determine the impact of sea level rise on the pricing of residential properties. Through a spatial hedonic regression analysis of real estate markets in two Florida counties (Miami–Dade and Pinellas), we assess the influence of different exposure levels on market discounts. Our article stands out in terms of its focus on two comparative case studies and its differentiation between properties that are primary homes versus nonprimary homes. We find that generally discounts are positively associated with exposure levels and overall Miami–Dade experiences higher discounts than Pinellas due to the former’s lower average elevations. We also observe different market behaviors of primary versus nonprimary home buyers and these are partially dependent on affluence. In Miami–Dade, price discounts are less for highly priced properties purchased by nonprimary owners. We attribute this to different buying motives and risk tolerance of affluent nonprimary homeowners. We argue that nonprimary ownership, particularly in high-end waterfront residential real estate, is tempering gradual market adaptation to sea level rise exposure risk, which could have detrimental longer-term consequences in terms of market volatility.