Occupational health for Latinos in Baltimore: Translating research into education-based interventions

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Latinos suffer a higher rate of work-related injuries and fatalities in the United States than any other racial/ethnic group. Through a multi-stakeholder project between Casa de Maryland Baltimore Workers' Center, an interdisciplinary Bienestar student volunteer group, and the NIOSH sponsored Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, we seek to raise awareness about occupational health hazards and illness among non-English speaking Latinos in Baltimore, Maryland. METHODS: A new training program was built on the results of a qualitative research project that utilized focus groups and key informant in-depth interviews to discern the occupational health training needs and issues of this population. Training topics, as well as the most appropriate methodological approaches to effective training, were derived from transcript-based thematic analysis, descriptive statistics, member-checking, and interactive debriefing sessions that followed pilot charlas. RESULTS: The presentation will cover the process by which we translated the results from our community-based participatory research project into an interactive, peer-reviewed, and culturally appropriate education program. CONCLUSION: We demonstrate how the iterative research process transformed a student-led community service project that initially focused only on the provision of personal protective equipment to a “train-the-trainer” program that promotes interactive information exchange between Casa staff and the workers themselves to create community capacity and sustainable training to prevent occupational injury and illness.