Assessing Heat-Related Morbidity Among Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cooper S ; Zhang K
• Description:
  Background: Migrant and seasonal farmworkers are highly vulnerable to ambient heat mainly because nearly 85% of U.S. farmworkers labor outdoors. The rate of heat-related deaths in the agriculture/forestry/fishing and hunting industry (0.3 deaths per 100,000 full-time workers) was the highest among all industry sectors, with this sector contributing 16% of all heat-related deaths in 1992-2006. Low social-economic status (SES) such as poverty, limited health insurance coverage and unauthorized work status might exacerbate their vulnerability in addition to their physical exposures to heat. However, to our knowledge, no studies have quantified the associations between extreme heat and heat-related illness among migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the U.S. using medical records and evaluated potential vulnerability indicators. Objectives: The project involved two major activities: 1) to estimate effects of heat on mean daily counts of clinic visits among migrant and seasonal farmworkers by taking advantage of a unique electronic medical records database in the USA; and 2) to evaluate potential determinants of vulnerability. Methods: We compiled a daily weather and electronic medical dataset based on data from five health centers located in in five states (California, Colorado, Michigan, New York and Washington) for the summer of 2013. We excluded data from Washington due to few migrant farmworkers included in the data. We used Poisson regression to estimate the associations between heat and daily all-cause clinic visits among migrant or seasonal farmworkers or other clinic patients. We defined heat effects as the percentage difference in average daily counts of clinic visits, comparing 90-50th percentiles of daily mean apparent temperature, a composite index accounting for both temperature and humidity. Results: We observed positive associations between heat and clinic visits among migrant and seasonal farmworkers across four centers, point estimates of heat effects are positive up to 53.5% for migrant farmworkers in two centers (Colorado and Michigan) and positive up to 16.3% for seasonal farmworkers in two centers (Colorado and Michigan). We found statistically significant effects among male migrant farmworkers compared to female migrant farmworkers in two centers (Colorado and Michigan). Conclusions: Our study appears to be the first multi-city study to examine heat effects among migrant and seasonal farmworkers using electronic medical records. This research suggests possible meaningful impact of heat on migrant farmworkers particularly on male migrant farmworkers and provides justifications for further studies. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Emigration And Immigration Farmers Hot Temperature Occupational Health Safety Temperature
• Keywords:
  Agricultural Workers Electronic Health Records Farm Workers Heat Exposure Hot Environments Migrant Workers Outdoor Workers Seasonal Workers Temperature Effects
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Colorado ; Michigan ; New York ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 6 ; OSHA Region 8 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Texas ; 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:
  1-38
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20062917
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2022-100483
• 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, R03-OH-011195, 2020 Nov; :1-38
• Contact Point Address:
  Kai Zhang, PhD, Principal Investigator, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) PO Box 20036 Houston, Texas 77225-0036
• Email:
  Kai.Zhang@uth.tmc.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2021
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth)
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20160901
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20180831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2c6b5d5acef37c32da6171a8f1f8cb97657ae071dc1058daf8877e7cc9fbc3bd44ae7f0c968ec3b4155c5098f2bb2c18d4d5b440536380826d9bcf019a796226
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219058/cdc_219058_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.17 MB ]