Pilot of a Community Health Worker Video Intervention for Immigrant Day Laborers at Occupational Health Risk.

Significance: Immigrant day laborers suffer from disproportionate occupational health risks from hazardous reconstruction jobs after natural disasters. Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial of a short-video educational intervention to improve safety knowledge and intent to engage in safety preventive behaviors among 98 Hispanic day laborers (49 randomized to video and 49 control). The short video featured a male promotor and a female promotora who narrated 3 stories of day laborers who were injured while doing construction work in post-Katrina New Orleans. The main outcome measures were changes in scores for day laborer-reported safety knowledge and safety behaviors derived from interviewer-delivered baseline and post-intervention surveys. Results: Video participants reported improvement in overall average safety knowledge score (mean score of 11.3 out of a max score of 12 or 94% when standardized to 0-100% scale), as compared to the control group (mean score of 8.6 or 72%) who were not offered the video (p < 0.00001). The intervention was highly successful in workers stating that they learned and were willing to change their safety preventive behaviors to reduce their occupational risk. The average safety behavior score was higher among those watching the video (17.2 out of a max of 22 or 78.1% when standardized on a scale 0-100%) as compared to control (14.5 or 65.9%) (p = 0.0024). Conclusion: A short video intervention can improve knowledge and intent to engage in preventive behaviors among Hispanic workers for which there is a dearth of construction safety preventive research.

Separate and unequal: Structural racism and infant mortality in the US.

We examined associations between state-level measures of structural racism and infant mortality among black and white populations across the US. Overall and race-specific infant mortality rates in each state were calculated from national linked birth and infant death records from 2010 to 2013. Structural racism in each state was characterized by racial inequity (ratio of black to white population estimates) in educational attainment, median household income, employment, imprisonment, and juvenile custody. Poisson regression with robust standard errors estimated infant mortality rate ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) associated with an IQR increase in indicators of structural racism overall and separately within black and white populations. Across all states, increasing racial inequity in unemployment was associated with a 5% increase in black infant mortality (RR=1.05, 95% CI=1.01, 1.10). Decreasing racial inequity in education was associated with an almost 10% reduction in the black infant mortality rate (RR=0.92, 95% CI=0.85, 0.99). None of the structural racism measures were significantly associated with infant mortality among whites. Structural racism may contribute to the persisting racial inequity in infant mortality.

Latino immigrant day laborer perceptions of occupational safety and health information preferences.

BACKGROUND: We address immigrant day laborers' experiences with occupational safety in the construction industry in New Orleans, and opinions about content and method of communication for educational interventions to reduce occupational risks. METHODS: In 2011, we conducted seven focus groups with 48 Spanish-speaking day laborers (8 women, 40 men, 35 years on average). Focus group results are based on thematic analysis. RESULTS: Most employers did not provide safety equipment, threatened to dismiss workers who asked for it, and did not provide health insurance. Attitudes toward accepting unsafe work conditions varied. Women faced lower pay and hiring difficulties than men. Day laborers preferred audio format over written, and content about consequences from and equipment for different jobs/exposures. CONCLUSIONS: Day laborers have common occupational experiences, but differences existed by gender, literacy and sense of control over safety. Day laborer information preferences and use of media needs further studying. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:476-485, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.