Engaging Ethnic Community Agencies in Adopting Basic Worker Health Education

Details

• Personal Author:
  Herting JR ; Tsai JH-C
• Description:
  Background: Compared to their native-born counterparts, immigrant ethnic minorities are overrepresented in low-paying and dangerous jobs. Relatively unsuccessful occupational health (OH) protection efforts, designed for worksite implementation with low-wage immigrant workers, compel re-thinking intervention strategies and optimizing novel community-focused, network-oriented approaches. Ethnic community agencies are important but underutilized assets capable of providing the essential building blocks for collaborative community OH approaches. This research investigated the integration of basic worker health education (WHEB) in, and by community agencies in order to reach a broad range of Chinese American immigrants. Study aims were: Aim 1: Critique and finalize WHEB materials for appropriateness, comprehensibility, and viability for use in community agencies; Aim 2: Characterize intra- and extra-organizational factors associated with community agency approaches to program changes, and agency openness to engage in adopting WHEB as a service innovation; and Aim 3: Describe the implementation process and outcomes of WHEB integration in diverse community agency settings, using a pilot implementation trial. Approach. A mixed-methods design was used across study aims. Six bilingual service providers familiar with Chinese culture and agency workflow (Aim 1) critiqued the prototype WHEB materials, which were based on guidelines developed by OHSA, L&I and NIOSH. With agencies as observational units, middle/high level administrators from 26 agencies/organizations representing four types of community agencies were interviewed regarding factors associated with agency approaches to program changes and openness to adopt WHEB (Aim 2). We randomly selected eight agencies (two per agency type) that expressed interest in integrating WHEB into their services; an OH nurse worked with each agency to conduct the pilot implementation trial for the set of WHEB materials (Aim 3). With online surveys (post implementation & follow-up) completed by two representatives per agency, we collected data on the specific implementation process and outcome variables. We incorporated the OH nurse's participant-observations into the analysis, integrating quantitative and qualitative data to provide direct and practical knowledge about how community agencies move forward in adopting new program ideas for WHEB. Findings. The community advisors were enthusiastic about the Chinese WHEB materials, which were finalized and used in the trial. Multiple intra- and extra-organizational factors influenced community agency program/service operation and decisions. The top three intra-organizational factors were organizational capacity, needs of existing program/service users, and agency decision-making flows; the top three extra-organizational factors were unmet needs of target communities identified by the agency, demographic changes in the community, and external funding. Four WHEB delivery prototypes suitable to community settings and barriers to continuation were identified from the trial. Implications. Occupational Health Equity is one Core and Specialty Program on the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA). Knowledge generated from this project will identify and guide strategic choices in order to facilitate community-based partnership development and dissemination of sustainable worker health programs for immigrant workers. The relevance of the WHEB materials, procedural and substantive knowledge, and demonstrated value of the community approach from this research will provide a program adoption model transferable in working with other ethnic minority and immigrant worker populations to promote OH equity. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Demography Education Emigration And Immigration Minority Health Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Community Based Demographic Characteristics Immigrant Workers Information Dissemination Minority Health Occupational Health Equity Worker Health
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-15
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20055645
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2019-100843
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, R21-OH-010670, 2018 Feb; :1-15
• Contact Point Address:
  Jenny Hsin-Chun Tsai, Principal Investigator, University of Washington School of Nursing, Department of Psychosocial and Community Health, Box 357263, Seattle, WA 98195-7263
• Email:
  jennyt@uw.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2018
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington, Seattle
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20140701
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20171231
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9409f20273254a291a22539d1d5ec387116b02e0157dd23e990544848d0fc4b1f65424f1b21fca31549c612f2c0ac68da469fa329ec782435931780a140dad5d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218857/cdc_218857_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 209.73 KB ]