326137
°Protéjase! mHealth and PPE Intervention Promotes Pesticide Safety for Mexican Immigrant Farmworkers
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Shedra Amy Snipes, PhD,
Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Joshua Smyth, PhD,
Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Dennis Murphy, PhD,
Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Lisa Davis, MHA,
Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
OBJECTIVE: We evaluated an mHealth pilot intervention aimed to increase pesticide safety behaviors among Mexican farmworkers. METHODS: Farmworkers were given dynamically tailored, culturally-appropriate motivational messages in their preferred language (Spanish or English) via mobile smart phones aimed to increase PPE use. Additionally, we provided workers with gloves, safety glasses and long-sleeved shirts for use during the intervention pilot. Pre/post surveys assess PPE use over time. RESULTS: Positive safety behavior change for gloves (p=<0.01) and safety glasses (p=<0.001) from baseline to follow-up were achieved. Use of long-sleeved shirts, hats, and long pants were already consistently used at baseline and thus did not exhibit significant improvement at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate a unique opportunity to use mHealth toward positive behavior change for pesticide safety in Mexican farmworkers.
Learning Areas:
Environmental health sciences
Occupational health and safety
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences
Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate the use of mHealth approaches in vulnerable, marginalized immigrant working group.
Explain how culturally-appropriate language is used in mHealth pilot intervention for Spanish-speaking workers.
Keyword(s): Occupational Health and Safety, Immigrant Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am trained as a biological anthropologist with a research emphasis on health disparities among Mexican agricultural workers. I am principal investigator of funded studies in this area, and have published manuscripts in refereed journals on the health of Mexican farmworker families.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
