Using Ethnographic Methods for Survey Sample Design in a Community-based Participatory Study of Occupational Health among Immigrant Poultry Processing Workers

JUSTA is a NIOSH-funded community-based participatory intervention project in western North Carolina involving a partnership of occupational health scientists, health care providers, community-based organizations, and poultry workers. JUSTA's documentation of the physical and psychosocial impacts of employment on Latino poultry workers required a scientifically valid sample of workers. However, Latino immigrant poultry workers are a hard-to-reach population. The poultry processing industry is antagonistic to occupational health research among their employees. No sampling frame exists for Latino immigrants, particularly those who work in specific industries like poultry processing. Latino immigrants have strong privacy concerns (e.g., lack of documents) and do not want to draw the attention of the government. Finally, they do not want to be seen by their employers as causing trouble because this may put them at risk for job loss. This presentation describes the ethnographic approach used to inform the survey sample design implemented by the JUSTA project. This approach incorporated (1) an ethnographic presence in the community based on long-term collaboration with local organizations and project staff residing in the communities; (2) informal key-informant interviews with service providers, clergy, and Latino commercial business owners, as well as with poultry processing workers; (3) formal in-depth interviews with poultry workers and services providers; and (4) systematic participant observation. The survey sample identified and recruited provided scientifically reliable and valid information that JUSTA investigators have used to develop a community intervention, design educational materials for health care providers, and argue for changes in the occupational health regulations. (NIOSH grant OH008335)