An Analysis of Publicly Available Health Education Materials Designed for Migrant Farm Workers

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In the United States, there are more than 3 million migrant or seasonal farm workers each year. The lack of legal protections, low pay, and often-dangerous work conditions lead to serious health inequities for farmworkers and their families. This in conjunction with the lack of adequate health care opportunities makes a huge deficit for migrant farmworkers health. This project sought out to identify health education barriers within the farmworker community and map the availability of health education materials across four databases: Migrant Clinicians Network, National Center for Farmworker Health, National Agricultural Safety Database and MedlinePlus. METHODS: We identified 15 key topics within health education, which then had key points captured across the four databases including if the information was targeted. We established inter-coder reliability and conducted coding for patient education materials by topic. We also coded if the material was designed specifically for farmworkers. RESULTS: The availability of materials ranged from on the low end, accessing clinic services, having one health education material total across all four databases, to Alcohol, Tobacco and other drugs having 50 materials across the 4 databases. After coding for materials targeted, databases ranged from 1% of materials targeted towards farmworkers, to 27% materials targeted. DISCUSSION: These data were captured in hopes of bridging the gap in publicly available information for migrant and seasonal farm workers. Key databases for patient education materials for migrant farmworker populations have gaps that may hinder health promotion efforts.