On-Farm Health Screening Needs of Immigrant Dairy Workers in the Texas Panhandle and South Plains

ABSTRACT

The objective of this pilot study was to determine the health needs of dairy farm workers and the feasibility of on-farm health risk screenings in the Texas Panhandle and South Plains. A cross-sectional study design was used to collect survey responses concerning health needs, occupational, and economic characteristics among 300 dairy workers between April 2020 and July 2021. Participants were predominantly immigrant Hispanic (88.8%) males (83.0%) of approximately 34.4 (SD 9.9) years of age, worked 6.0 (SD 0.4; Range 3–7) days a week and 9.9 (SD 1.5; Range 6–13) hours a day, earning a mean hourly rate of $13.40 (SD $2.80). Participants reported interest in attending on-farm health risk screenings (93.8%) as well as receiving a COVID-19 vaccine if it became available (86.4%). Health service categories were ranked from: (1st “most important”) preventative care (Mean Rank 2.3), (2nd) laboratory and diagnostic care (Mean Rank 2.6), (3rd) nutritional and physical fitness support (Mean Rank 2.8), (4th) mental health care (Mean Rank 3.4), and (5th) workplace interventions (Mean Rank 3.6). Participants reported obtaining health information predominantly from internet searches (32.0%) and social media (17.7%). Findings suggest there is need and interest for on-farm health risk screenings and education among immigrant dairy workers in the Texas Panhandle-South Plains region. Addressing known barriers to health should be paramount to the organization of on-farm health risk screenings.

KEYWORDS:

• Hispanic
• workplace interventions
• health barriers
• COVID-19
• education

Acknowledgments

Thank you to all the essential agricultural workers, families, and producers who kept feeding the world throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1059924X.2023.2200418

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Southwest Center for Agricultural Health, Injury Prevention, and Education through Cooperative Agreement #U54-OH007541 from CDC/NIOSH.