The University of Arizona College of Public Health collaborated with a grassroots farmworker heal... more The University of Arizona College of Public Health collaborated with a grassroots farmworker health promotion organization, Campesinos Sin Fronteras, and a grassroots human rights network, Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, to conduct a comprehensive health survey of farmworkers at the US-Mexico Border and begin addressing public policy based on the findings. Survey instruments included modules on health and human service utilization, and stressors related to border residence. A random household survey of 300 farmworkers living in the study area (average age 44), and a shorter opportunistic survey of 200 employed seasonally in the region (average age 50) were conducted in 2006-2007. Results indicate elevated levels of diabetes and hypertension among men, chronic musculoskeletal complaints, considerable stress related to the changing social environment and seasonal nature of their work, underutilization of public services to which they are entitled, and limited awareness of their rights ...
BackgroundVaccine hesitancy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic is a complex issue that undermin... more BackgroundVaccine hesitancy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic is a complex issue that undermines our national ability to reduce the burden of the disease and control the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed widening health disparities and disproportionate adverse health outcomes in terms of transmission, hospitalizations, morbidity and mortality among Arizona's Latinx rural, underserved, farmworker, disabled and elderly populations. In March 2021, ~8.1% of those vaccinated were Latinx, though Latinxs make up 32% of Arizona's population. The Arizona Vaccine Confidence Network (AzVCN) proposed to leverage the expertise of the Arizona Prevention Research Center (AzPRC) and the resources of the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH) Mobile Health Unit (MHU) to identify, implement and evaluate a MHU intervention to increase uptake of COVID-19 vaccines.MethodsThe AzVCN focused efforts on Latinx, rural, un/underinsured and farmworker communities in the fou...
At the United States-Mexico border, the impacts of immigration policy are dynamic with political,... more At the United States-Mexico border, the impacts of immigration policy are dynamic with political, humanitarian, and health outcomes. This article highlights the experiences at the Casa Alitas migrant shelter in Tucson, Arizona. Casa Alitas aims to meet the needs of the im/migrants it serves, including the unique needs of indigenous asylum-seekers from Central America. We highlight the importance of community-based humanitarian response to support asylum-seekers in a way that acknowledges our shared humanity and implements specific approaches (e.g., language justice and trauma informed care). The effort at Casa Alitas is unique because in addition to other partnerships, Casa Alitas established an interprofessional collaboration between the University of Arizona Health Sciences Colleges and the Arizona State University School of Social Work. The interprofessional collaboration encourages mutual education amongst our professions and the use of our extended networks to meet the needs of...
ABSTRACT This presentation will discuss a binational collaboration of El Colegio de Sonora, the S... more ABSTRACT This presentation will discuss a binational collaboration of El Colegio de Sonora, the Secretaria de Salud in Sonora and the Arizona Prevention Research Center at the University of Arizona College of Public Health to develop and implement a community health worker chronic disease prevention curriculum and intervention in underserved communities in Mexico. The original curriculum, Pasos Adelante, was tested in the U.S.-Mexico border region for more than six years and was modeled after the Su Corazn, Su Vida curriculum developed by NHLBI. The newer Mexican curriculum, MetaSalud, was adapted to be used with the Secretaria de Salud in Sonora and has been implemented in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico for the past two years with more than 150 participants. The presentation will include: the adaption process highlighting those areas of the curriculum that were relevant to both populations as well as the changes to the curriculum for the population in Mexico; the similarities and differences of the community health worker role in implementation of the curriculum; results and outcomes of the intervention in the United States and Mexico; and challenges to the institutionalization of the program in both countries. Discussion will focus on lessons learned through this binational collaboration regarding the role of community health workers in chronic disease prevention, and future plans for collaborative binational health promotion interventions in the border region.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Expanding agribusiness in Northern Mexico has increased demand for workers from Southern Mexico, ... more Expanding agribusiness in Northern Mexico has increased demand for workers from Southern Mexico, with hundreds of thousands migrating for work annually. Extreme temperatures, physical labor, and low fluid consumption place workers at risk for heat strain and dehydration, commonly underreported hazards in the agricultural industry. The objectives of this pilot study were to assess heat exposure and hydration status of a population of migratory agricultural workers in Northern Mexico throughout the grape harvest season. In addition to demographic information, environmental conditions, hydration status, and core body temperatures were collected. The majority listed Chiapas as their home state, nearly half spoke an Indigenous language, and none had completed high school. The wet-bulb globe temperature was significantly higher during the harvest and post-harvest seasons compared to the pre-harvest season. Across the different seasons, the majority were dehydrated post-shift, and mean cor...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Expanding agribusiness in Sonora, a state in Northern Mexico, has increased the demand for tempor... more Expanding agribusiness in Sonora, a state in Northern Mexico, has increased the demand for temporary migrant agricultural workers. Sonora is one of the top states in Mexico for pesticide utilization. We conducted an exploratory study to evaluate exposure to organophosphate (OP) and pyrethroid pesticides among migrant farmworkers. A sample of 20 migrant farmworkers was recruited from a large commercial grape farm during the harvest season. We administered a questionnaire on work activities, exposure characteristics, and socio-demographics. We collected urine samples to quantify pesticide metabolite concentrations. Most participants were originally from the state of Chiapas, Mexico, none had completed high school, and about half spoke an indigenous language as well as Spanish. The majority of participants had detectable concentrations of pyrethroid and organophosphate biomarkers. Geometric mean creatinine-adjusted concentrations for 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (1.83 µg/g), trans-3-(2,2-dich...
Migration from lower- and middle-income to high-income countries is associated with dietary chang... more Migration from lower- and middle-income to high-income countries is associated with dietary change, and especially with the adoption of a modern, less healthy diet. In this article we analyze the dietary changes experienced by Mexican migrants, employing as a theoretical framework the concept of social practice. According to this framework, practices integrate material elements, meanings and competences that provide their conditions of possibility. Practices are shared by members of social groups, and interact with other competing or reinforcing practices. Between 2014 and 2015, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 women, international return migrants living in Tijuana, Mexico. The interview guide asked about history of migration and dietary change. We found three main areas of dietary change: from subsistence farming to ready meals, abundance vs. restriction, and adoption of new food items. The first one was associated with changes in food procurement and female work: wh...
Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 2017
In underserved areas, it is crucial to investigate ways of increasing access to hearing health ca... more In underserved areas, it is crucial to investigate ways of increasing access to hearing health care. The community health worker (CHW) is a model that has been applied to increase access in various health arenas. This article proposes further investigation into the application of this model to audiology. To assess the feasibility of training CHWs about hearing loss as a possible approach to increase accessibility of hearing health support services in an underserved area. A specialized three-phase training process for CHWs was developed, implemented, and evaluated by audiologists and public health researchers. The training process included (1) focus groups with CHWs and residents from the community to raise awareness of hearing loss among CHWs and the community; (2) a 3-hr workshop training to introduce basic topics to prepare CHWs to identify signs of hearing loss among community members and use effective communication strategies; and (3) a 24-hr multisession, interactive training &...
This paper describes a community coalition-university partnership to address health needs in an u... more This paper describes a community coalition-university partnership to address health needs in an underserved US-Mexico border, community. For approximately 15 years, this coalition engaged in community-based participatory research with community organizations, state/local health departments, and the state's only accredited college of public health. Notable efforts include the systematic collection of health-relevant data 12 years apart and data that spawned numerous health promotion activities. The latter includes specific evidence-based chronic disease-preventive interventions, including one that is now disseminated and replicated in Latino communities in the US and Mexico, and policy-level changes. Survey data to evaluate changes in a range of health problems and needs, with a specific focus on those related to diabetes and access to health-care issues-identified early on in the coalition as critical health problems affecting the community-are presented. Next steps for this com...
The University of Arizona College of Public Health collaborated with a grassroots farmworker heal... more The University of Arizona College of Public Health collaborated with a grassroots farmworker health promotion organization, Campesinos Sin Fronteras, and a grassroots human rights network, Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, to conduct a comprehensive health survey of farmworkers at the US-Mexico Border and begin addressing public policy based on the findings. Survey instruments included modules on health and human service utilization, and stressors related to border residence. A random household survey of 300 farmworkers living in the study area (average age 44), and a shorter opportunistic survey of 200 employed seasonally in the region (average age 50) were conducted in 2006-2007. Results indicate elevated levels of diabetes and hypertension among men, chronic musculoskeletal complaints, considerable stress related to the changing social environment and seasonal nature of their work, underutilization of public services to which they are entitled, and limited awareness of their rights ...
BackgroundVaccine hesitancy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic is a complex issue that undermin... more BackgroundVaccine hesitancy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic is a complex issue that undermines our national ability to reduce the burden of the disease and control the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed widening health disparities and disproportionate adverse health outcomes in terms of transmission, hospitalizations, morbidity and mortality among Arizona's Latinx rural, underserved, farmworker, disabled and elderly populations. In March 2021, ~8.1% of those vaccinated were Latinx, though Latinxs make up 32% of Arizona's population. The Arizona Vaccine Confidence Network (AzVCN) proposed to leverage the expertise of the Arizona Prevention Research Center (AzPRC) and the resources of the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH) Mobile Health Unit (MHU) to identify, implement and evaluate a MHU intervention to increase uptake of COVID-19 vaccines.MethodsThe AzVCN focused efforts on Latinx, rural, un/underinsured and farmworker communities in the fou...
At the United States-Mexico border, the impacts of immigration policy are dynamic with political,... more At the United States-Mexico border, the impacts of immigration policy are dynamic with political, humanitarian, and health outcomes. This article highlights the experiences at the Casa Alitas migrant shelter in Tucson, Arizona. Casa Alitas aims to meet the needs of the im/migrants it serves, including the unique needs of indigenous asylum-seekers from Central America. We highlight the importance of community-based humanitarian response to support asylum-seekers in a way that acknowledges our shared humanity and implements specific approaches (e.g., language justice and trauma informed care). The effort at Casa Alitas is unique because in addition to other partnerships, Casa Alitas established an interprofessional collaboration between the University of Arizona Health Sciences Colleges and the Arizona State University School of Social Work. The interprofessional collaboration encourages mutual education amongst our professions and the use of our extended networks to meet the needs of...
ABSTRACT This presentation will discuss a binational collaboration of El Colegio de Sonora, the S... more ABSTRACT This presentation will discuss a binational collaboration of El Colegio de Sonora, the Secretaria de Salud in Sonora and the Arizona Prevention Research Center at the University of Arizona College of Public Health to develop and implement a community health worker chronic disease prevention curriculum and intervention in underserved communities in Mexico. The original curriculum, Pasos Adelante, was tested in the U.S.-Mexico border region for more than six years and was modeled after the Su Corazn, Su Vida curriculum developed by NHLBI. The newer Mexican curriculum, MetaSalud, was adapted to be used with the Secretaria de Salud in Sonora and has been implemented in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico for the past two years with more than 150 participants. The presentation will include: the adaption process highlighting those areas of the curriculum that were relevant to both populations as well as the changes to the curriculum for the population in Mexico; the similarities and differences of the community health worker role in implementation of the curriculum; results and outcomes of the intervention in the United States and Mexico; and challenges to the institutionalization of the program in both countries. Discussion will focus on lessons learned through this binational collaboration regarding the role of community health workers in chronic disease prevention, and future plans for collaborative binational health promotion interventions in the border region.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Expanding agribusiness in Northern Mexico has increased demand for workers from Southern Mexico, ... more Expanding agribusiness in Northern Mexico has increased demand for workers from Southern Mexico, with hundreds of thousands migrating for work annually. Extreme temperatures, physical labor, and low fluid consumption place workers at risk for heat strain and dehydration, commonly underreported hazards in the agricultural industry. The objectives of this pilot study were to assess heat exposure and hydration status of a population of migratory agricultural workers in Northern Mexico throughout the grape harvest season. In addition to demographic information, environmental conditions, hydration status, and core body temperatures were collected. The majority listed Chiapas as their home state, nearly half spoke an Indigenous language, and none had completed high school. The wet-bulb globe temperature was significantly higher during the harvest and post-harvest seasons compared to the pre-harvest season. Across the different seasons, the majority were dehydrated post-shift, and mean cor...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Expanding agribusiness in Sonora, a state in Northern Mexico, has increased the demand for tempor... more Expanding agribusiness in Sonora, a state in Northern Mexico, has increased the demand for temporary migrant agricultural workers. Sonora is one of the top states in Mexico for pesticide utilization. We conducted an exploratory study to evaluate exposure to organophosphate (OP) and pyrethroid pesticides among migrant farmworkers. A sample of 20 migrant farmworkers was recruited from a large commercial grape farm during the harvest season. We administered a questionnaire on work activities, exposure characteristics, and socio-demographics. We collected urine samples to quantify pesticide metabolite concentrations. Most participants were originally from the state of Chiapas, Mexico, none had completed high school, and about half spoke an indigenous language as well as Spanish. The majority of participants had detectable concentrations of pyrethroid and organophosphate biomarkers. Geometric mean creatinine-adjusted concentrations for 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (1.83 µg/g), trans-3-(2,2-dich...
Migration from lower- and middle-income to high-income countries is associated with dietary chang... more Migration from lower- and middle-income to high-income countries is associated with dietary change, and especially with the adoption of a modern, less healthy diet. In this article we analyze the dietary changes experienced by Mexican migrants, employing as a theoretical framework the concept of social practice. According to this framework, practices integrate material elements, meanings and competences that provide their conditions of possibility. Practices are shared by members of social groups, and interact with other competing or reinforcing practices. Between 2014 and 2015, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 women, international return migrants living in Tijuana, Mexico. The interview guide asked about history of migration and dietary change. We found three main areas of dietary change: from subsistence farming to ready meals, abundance vs. restriction, and adoption of new food items. The first one was associated with changes in food procurement and female work: wh...
Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 2017
In underserved areas, it is crucial to investigate ways of increasing access to hearing health ca... more In underserved areas, it is crucial to investigate ways of increasing access to hearing health care. The community health worker (CHW) is a model that has been applied to increase access in various health arenas. This article proposes further investigation into the application of this model to audiology. To assess the feasibility of training CHWs about hearing loss as a possible approach to increase accessibility of hearing health support services in an underserved area. A specialized three-phase training process for CHWs was developed, implemented, and evaluated by audiologists and public health researchers. The training process included (1) focus groups with CHWs and residents from the community to raise awareness of hearing loss among CHWs and the community; (2) a 3-hr workshop training to introduce basic topics to prepare CHWs to identify signs of hearing loss among community members and use effective communication strategies; and (3) a 24-hr multisession, interactive training &...
This paper describes a community coalition-university partnership to address health needs in an u... more This paper describes a community coalition-university partnership to address health needs in an underserved US-Mexico border, community. For approximately 15 years, this coalition engaged in community-based participatory research with community organizations, state/local health departments, and the state's only accredited college of public health. Notable efforts include the systematic collection of health-relevant data 12 years apart and data that spawned numerous health promotion activities. The latter includes specific evidence-based chronic disease-preventive interventions, including one that is now disseminated and replicated in Latino communities in the US and Mexico, and policy-level changes. Survey data to evaluate changes in a range of health problems and needs, with a specific focus on those related to diabetes and access to health-care issues-identified early on in the coalition as critical health problems affecting the community-are presented. Next steps for this com...
Uploads