TY - JOUR
T1 - Health conditions among farmworkers in the Southwest
T2 - An analysis of the National Agricultural Workers Survey
AU - Soto, Sheila
AU - Yoder, Aaron Meck
AU - Nuño, Tomas
AU - Aceves, Benjamin
AU - Sepulveda, Refugio
AU - Rosales, Cecilia Ballesteros
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Soto, Yoder, Nuño, Aceves, Sepulveda and Rosales.
PY - 2022/11/3
Y1 - 2022/11/3
N2 - Agricultural jobs pose many challenges to the health and wellbeing of a disadvantaged population. In the Southwest region, the socioeconomic factors of living along the U.S.-Mexico border, migration patterns, lack of access to health care, low utilization of health care services, lack of health insurance, and highly demanding occupation may uniquely affect health outcomes for farmworkers. This paper presents descriptive information for professionals to improve access to care by tackling barriers afforded by the agricultural industry. The National Agricultural Worker Survey (NAWS) is an employment-based, random-sample survey of U.S. agricultural workers in six regions: East, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Northwest, and California. We examined farmworkers' self-reported health conditions, including asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, other chronic conditions, or any condition by region from 2013 to 2016. We used logistic regression to determine differences in lifetime prevalence of health conditions between farmworkers in the Southwest region (n = 727) and farmworkers in other regions (n = 8,850) using weighted data. After adjusting for age, gender, income, insurance status, and English-speaking ability, the odds of high blood pressure and other condition were similar in all regions. The prevalence of diabetes was almost double in the Southwest (114.2 per 1,000 farmworkers). The odds of diabetes were 1.31 (95% CI 0.99, 1.74) times greater in the Southwest region than in the other regions. Asthma was the only condition that was lower in the Southwest (22 per 1,000 farmworkers) compared to the other regions. The odds of asthma were 0.61 (95% CI 0.36, 1.03) times lower in the Southwest region than in other regions. The results follow previous studies on the prevalence of asthma among the farmworker population and elevated probability of chronic diseases including diabetes among the Latino population in the U.S.
AB - Agricultural jobs pose many challenges to the health and wellbeing of a disadvantaged population. In the Southwest region, the socioeconomic factors of living along the U.S.-Mexico border, migration patterns, lack of access to health care, low utilization of health care services, lack of health insurance, and highly demanding occupation may uniquely affect health outcomes for farmworkers. This paper presents descriptive information for professionals to improve access to care by tackling barriers afforded by the agricultural industry. The National Agricultural Worker Survey (NAWS) is an employment-based, random-sample survey of U.S. agricultural workers in six regions: East, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Northwest, and California. We examined farmworkers' self-reported health conditions, including asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, other chronic conditions, or any condition by region from 2013 to 2016. We used logistic regression to determine differences in lifetime prevalence of health conditions between farmworkers in the Southwest region (n = 727) and farmworkers in other regions (n = 8,850) using weighted data. After adjusting for age, gender, income, insurance status, and English-speaking ability, the odds of high blood pressure and other condition were similar in all regions. The prevalence of diabetes was almost double in the Southwest (114.2 per 1,000 farmworkers). The odds of diabetes were 1.31 (95% CI 0.99, 1.74) times greater in the Southwest region than in the other regions. Asthma was the only condition that was lower in the Southwest (22 per 1,000 farmworkers) compared to the other regions. The odds of asthma were 0.61 (95% CI 0.36, 1.03) times lower in the Southwest region than in other regions. The results follow previous studies on the prevalence of asthma among the farmworker population and elevated probability of chronic diseases including diabetes among the Latino population in the U.S.
KW - Latinx
KW - National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS)
KW - Southwest
KW - diabetes
KW - farmworker
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142190052&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85142190052&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpubh.2022.962085
DO - 10.3389/fpubh.2022.962085
M3 - Article
C2 - 36407981
AN - SCOPUS:85142190052
SN - 2296-2565
VL - 10
JO - Frontiers in Public Health
JF - Frontiers in Public Health
M1 - 962085
ER -