Cancer Health Education Preferences among Miami-Dade County Construction Workers

INTRODUCTION:Construction workers are an underserved occupational group with limited health insurance who are at high risk for cancer given occupational exposures (e.g., asbestos, diesel exhaust, sun exposure) as well as adverse personal health risk profiles (e.g., smoking, poor diets). Construction workers are a transient occupation, which pose unique challenges for worksite outreach programs for cancer risk assessment. We examine the feasibility and acceptability of conducting paired cancer risk assessment and cancer prevention intervention activities with food delivery to construction worksites via “lunch trucks”.

METHODS: Construction workers from a large construction site in South Florida were invited to participate in a brief administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to assess their demographic, smoke exposure status, interest in obtaining health education information (smoking cessation, skin cancer prevention), and their acceptability of using onsite lunch trucks as a delivery method, as well as the most acceptable form of recruitment incentives.

RESULTS: Among the 57 completed questionnaires, seven self-reported being female (12.3%) and twenty-nine were White Hispanic (50.9%). Over 54% of the construction workers were current smokers of cigarettes, 3.5% chewed tobacco, and 19.3% smoked cigars. Of the current smokers, 80.1% expressed interest to quit smoking and 64.9% were willing to receive smoking cessation materials free of charge from a lunch truck at the construction site.

CONCLUSION: Construction workers exhibit high smoking rates, but are interested in quitting. Lunch truck-based health education, cancer screening and smoking cessation activities may be a practical way to address health-related health disparities in the construction workforce.