Beyond occupational safety: Health and well-being promotion for young workers

Background and Objective: The University of Miami Occupational Research Group (umiamiorg.com) utilized nationally representative public data to evaluate a range of health indicators among young workers in the US. In addition to creating a Monograph of the results, we began an outreach project called the Florida Young Employee Health Project (“flye”), to disseminate findings to youths and others. This presentation will highlight various components, both challenging and successful, in the progression of the ‘flye' project. This experience may help guide others interested in implementing an outreach component in their current or future research. Methods: An informal survey of young worker outreach/intervention/surveillance online resources was conducted. Additionally, a 38-item open and close-ended online questionnaire was designed to capture occupational safety and health knowledge, interests, concerns, and practices of youths aged 14-24. Results: The informal survey revealed that health/wellbeing topics are absent or minimized in favor of occupational safety issues. In addition, results from the questionnaire of 161 youths showed that while most are interested in occupational health/wellbeing issues, they might not have access to relevant information or know the right questions to ask. Conclusion: Synthesis of these findings helped to focus outreach efforts. Outreach included the creation of a tailored website (http://www.umiamiorg.com/flye/), the development of a ‘flye' public relations campaign, interactions with youths, and the identification of appropriate events/products for promotional purposes. Collaborations were forged with representatives from multiple disciplines such as NIOSH-state funded occupational surveillance programs, undergraduate Public Relations students, professional web designers, and Public Health graduate students.