A Model Program For Providing Health Services For Migrant Farmworker Mothers And Children

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Public Health Rep
• Personal Author:
  Watkins, E L ; Larson, K ; Harlan, C ; Young, S
• Description:
  A bilingual, multidisciplinary team of health professionals collaborated with a migrant health center in North Carolina to develop a model program to deliver primary health care services to migrant farmworker women and children. The program included case finding and outreach, coordination of maternal and child health services locally as well as interstate, and innovative health education programming. Data were collected on the health status of 359 pregnant migrant farmworker women and 560 children, ages birth to 5 years, the majority of Mexican descent, who received primary care services at the center. The mean age of the women was 23.1 years and their mean gravidity was 2.9. Dietary assessments showed that the protein intakes of most met or exceeded the U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowances, but their consumption of foods in the milk-dairy group and the fruit-vegetable group was below recommended standards. Low hematocrit was a common problem among the women (43 percent) and, to a lesser extent, among the children (26 percent). Among the infants and children, 18 percent were obese. Black American women had the highest proportion of low birth weight infants. The project emphasized coordinated services for migrant farmworker mothers and children, such as transportation services, language translation, follow-up, and advocacy. An outreach strategy involved case finding, home visits, and services by lay health advisors. By the third year of the project, there were increases in the average number of prenatal visits, the proportion of women entering prenatal care in their first trimester, and in the use of well-child services. The project demonstrated effective methods for delivering culturally appropriate health care services to migrant farmworker mothers and children using bilingual public health professionals.
• Subjects:
  Adult Agriculture Child, Preschool Child Health Services Female Health Status Humans Infant Infant, Newborn Maternal Health Services Pregnancy Transients And Migrants

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• Source:
  Public Health Rep. 105(6):567-575
• Pubmed ID:
  2124357
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMCnull
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  MCJ 373415/PHS HHS/U.S.
• Place as Subject:
  North America
• Volume:
  105
• Issue:
  6
• Collection(s):
  Public Health Reports
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:1477afcd9f16c3b11c28fa24db6cabd227742dd850e3ac379f5fce8b9c6758db
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/63537/cdc_63537_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.64 MB ]