Climate Change Anxiety Focus Groups: Executive Summary

During the year 2020, we were considering the problem of climate change anxiety in the Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City metro areas. In September of 2020, we partnered to conduct focus groups with environmentally engaged participants to understand their experience of climate change anxiety. We conducted 14 semi-structured focus groups with 46 community members to understand their emotions, behaviors, and perceptions of community in light of the climate crisis. We asked participants, many of whom were local environmental activists, to engage in a group discussion via Zoom videoconference which lasted between 60 and 90 minutes. After the discussion, we sent participants a brief survey. This executive summary is a preliminary report of the findings of that investigation. We present charts detailing participants’ responses to the focus group questions, followed by select excerpts from the conversations and some statistical relationships of interest.

Lymphedema as a Meteoropathic Disease Based on a Retrospective Study in a Single Institute: a Preliminary Report

Since cellulitis is one of the most important factors for the prognosis of lymphedema, the prevention and prediction of cellulitis are considered to be critical in controlling lymphedema. We hypothesized that patients with lymphedema might show meteoropathy, as abdominal aortic aneurysm ruptures are considered to be influenced by climatic conditions, and the lymphatic system is one of the circulation systems. Thus, we aimed to determine if the onset of cellulitis in limbs affected by lymphedema is related to climatic conditions. We reviewed the clinical records of patients with lymphedema admitted for cellulitis at our institute between January 2007 and December 2017. We identified 40 patients, 25 of whom lived in the same area. We examined the association between the number of patient admissions according to season and meteorological data obtained from the Japan Meteorological Agency database. Thirteen of 25 patients were admitted in summer, whereas only one patient was admitted in winter. Both higher temperature and lower atmospheric pressure around the day of admission were associated with the occurrence of cellulitis. Lymphedema may be regarded as a meteoropathic disease, as climatic conditions were shown to be associated with cellulitis in limbs affected by lymphedema.