Accessing Heat Effects Among Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers: A Multi-State Study

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cooper SP ; Yu X ; Zhang K
• Description:
  Background: Although migrant and seasonal farmworkers are highly vulnerable to ambient heat because of their working conditions, heat effects in this population have been rarely studied. Objectives: We estimated effects of heat on mean daily counts of clinic visits among migrant and seasonal farmworkers by taking advantage of a unique longitudinal medical records database in the USA. Methods: We compiled a daily weather and clinic visit data set based on data from five health centers located in in five states (California, Colorado, Michigan, New York and Washington) for the summer of 2011-2014. A total of 303, 121 patients were included in our analysis, including 87, 687 migrant farmworkers and 215,965 seasonal farmworkers. 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. We conducted a sensitivity analysis to evaluate the impact of adjustment for ozone levels and different heat definitions. Results: Although we did not observe statistically significant associations between heat and clinic visits among migrant and seasonal farmworkers across five centers, point estimates of heat effects are positive up to 6.5% for migrant farmworkers in two centers (Colorado and Michigan) and positive up to 16.3% for seasonal farmworkers in three centers (Colorado, Michigan and Washington). Conclusions: Our study appears to be the first to link heat effects with clinic data among migrant and seasonal farmworkers. This research suggests possible meaningful impact of heat on 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 Farm Workers Heat Exposure Hot Environments Migrant Workers Outdoor Workers Seasonal Workers Temperature Effects
• Publisher:
  International Society of Exposure Science
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• 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)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20062919
• Citation:
  International Society of Exposure Science - International Society for Environmental Epidemiology ISES-ISEE 2018 Joint Annual Meeting: Addressing Complex Local and Global Issues in Environmental Exposure and Health, August 26-30, 2018, Ottawa, Canada. Ottawa, Canada: International Society of Exposure Science, 2018 Aug; :P03.0220
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2018
• 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:
  International Society of Exposure Science - International Society for Environmental Epidemiology ISES-ISEE 2018 Joint Annual Meeting: Addressing Complex Local and Global Issues in Environmental Exposure and Health, August 26-30, 2018, Ottawa, Canada
• End Date:
  20180831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0900fb6231631c58938a0375e93fb52b76cb3305fdcc3613f77ed4cde096e42f30d92c3b244cddb1b20a48494e34cf991dbbc8b1667a45b7525d85fdba7d01b4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/226087/cdc_226087_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.06 MB ]