Employment conditions, farmworker psychosocial stress, and quality of life

Background: Workplace stress reduction is a focus of Healthy People 2010, as it is known that stress contributes to many chronic conditions and workplace injuries. The relationship of psychosocial stress for migrant farmworkers, who experience a unique combination of living and working conditions that may predispose them to unusually high levels of stress, and Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) has not been documented.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of migrant farmworker stress and their HRQOL.

Methods: Trained bilingual data collectors interviewed 75 Latino migrant farmworkers face-to-face, orally administering the Migrant Farmworker Stress Inventory and the 36 item Short Form of the Medical Outcome Survey (SF-36).

Results: Stress was associated with poorer HRQOL, both physical and mental dimensions, in all farmworkers. A serendipitous finding was that the pattern of stressors and their relationship to HRQOL was different for workers employed as H-2A workers, compared with those employed directly by growers or by agricultural labor contractors. The specific H-2A employers were noted for fair labor practices. The guestworkers experienced fewer stressors and overall better HRQOL, although there was no difference between the two types in stress from isolation or relationships.

Conclusions: Working conditions may contribute significantly to farmworker stress, and thus be an important factor in their HRQOL. The psychosocial stress of isolation and separation from friends and family were common experiences that suggest that addressing the mental health of farmworkers is a critical aspect of their health care.