Background: Essential workers across multiple industries faced a disproportionate burden of morbidity and mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effects were especially severe for agricultural and food processing workers, many of whom are members of the structurally vulnerable Latine community. Under current U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The study objective was to determine whether the clinical response of older adults with knee osteoarthritis and overweight or obesity to 18 months of diet and exercise (D + E) or attention control (C) interventions differed between participants from rural versus urban communities.
Methods: Participants were 823 older adults (mean age, 64.6 years; 77% women) with knee osteoarthritis and overweight or obesity who resided in rural (n = 410) and urban (n = 413) counties in North Carolina.
Unlabelled: The intersectional risks of children in United States immigrant communities include environmental exposures. Pesticide exposures and their biological outcomes are not well characterized in this population group. We assessed pesticide exposure and related these exposures to DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in Latinx children from rural, farmworker families (FW; = 30) and from urban, non-farmworker families (NFW; = 15) living in North Carolina.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Limited research has examined the health implications for youth working in United States tobacco production. Agricultural labor is hazardous, yet youth are legally permitted to be hired as farmworkers. Many youth farmworkers are members of the vulnerable Latino farmworker community.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Latinx child farmworkers, like all vulnerable youth living in rural communities, experience substantial environmental exposures. Eliminating these exposures and improving environmental justice will benefit from the involvement of these child farmworkers. The aims of this article are to document the environmental self-efficacy of Latinx child farmworkers and to delineate the factors associated with environmental self-efficacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExposure to pesticides in humans may lead to changes in brain structure and function and increase the likelihood of experiencing neurodevelopmental disorders. Despite the potential risks, there is limited neuroimaging research on the effects of pesticide exposure on children, particularly during the critical period of brain development. Here we used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) from magnetic resonance images (MRI) to investigate neuroanatomical differences between Latinx children (n = 71) from rural, farmworker families (FW; n = 48) and urban, non-farmworker families (NFW; n = 23).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether clinical, health-related quality of life (HRQL), and gait characteristics in adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA) differed by obesity category.
Methods: This cross-sectional analysis of 823 older adults (mean age 64.6 years, SD 7.
Objective: In a 2-group prospective design, this study compared seasonal cholinesterase levels of Latinx children in rural farmworker families and comparable urban children to assess the impact of environmental exposure to cholinesterase-inhibiting insecticides.
Methods: Quarterly blood samples and passive dosimeter wristbands were collected over 2 years in 8-year-old children (74 rural, 62 urban). Laboratory analysis assessed total cholinesterase, acetylcholinesterase, and butyrylcholinesterase from blood samples, and insecticides from wristbands.
Prog Community Health Partnersh
July 2023
Background: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) facilitates vulnerable communities and scientists collaborating to address pertinent health issues. For Latinx farmworkers, the employment of children and their resulting morbidity and mortality in the hazardous farm environment is a concern. Communicating child farmworker research results to farmworkers and service providers must take into account their language, literacy, and educational characteristics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study uses repeated measures to document the pesticide exposure of rural and urban Latinx children (age eight at baseline), and to compare these children in terms of the frequency and concentration of their exposure to a large set of pesticides, accounting for season. We used silicone wristbands worn for one week up to ten times at quarterly intervals from 2018 to 2022 to assess pesticide exposure in children from rural farmworker ( = 75) and urban non-farmworker ( = 61) families. We determined the detection and concentrations (ng/g) of 72 pesticides and pesticide degradation products in the wristbands using gas chromatography electron capture detection and gas chromatography mass spectrometry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The aim of this study is to gain insight into the clinical experiences and perceptions that pediatric oncology experts, conventional healthcare providers, and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) providers in Norway, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States have with the use of supportive care, including CAM among children and adolescents with cancer.
Methods: A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured in-depth interviews (n = 22) with healthcare providers with clinical experience working with CAM and/or other supportive care among children and adolescents with cancer from five different countries. Participants were recruited through professional associations and personal networks.
Prog Community Health Partnersh
December 2022
Background: Genomic knowledge is becoming increasingly relevant to health care. Development of linguistically and culturally appropriate educational resources for Latino adults with limited education and English skills is needed.
Objectives: The effectiveness of a telenovela was analyzed and lessons learned provided.
Importance: Some weight loss and exercise programs that have been successful in academic center-based trials have not been evaluated in community settings.
Objective: To determine whether adaptation of a diet and exercise intervention to community settings resulted in a statistically significant reduction in pain, compared with an attention control group, at 18-month follow-up.
Design, Setting, And Participants: Assessor-blinded randomized clinical trial conducted in community settings in urban and rural counties in North Carolina.
Background: (1)The COVID-19 pandemic has put essential workers at high risk for contracting the disease. This study documents situational compliance with public health recommendations such as masking and social distancing among rural and urban Latinx families, with the goal of understanding change over time in COVID-19 risk reduction behaviors.
Methods: (2)Respondents for 67 rural families and 44 urban families responded to repeated telephone surveys at three time points in the first year of the pandemic, providing data on use of masks and social distancing by themselves and family members while interacting with others at home, work, and in the community.
Pesticide exposure remains a health hazard despite extensive study into adverse effects. Children in vulnerable populations, such as Latinx children in farmworker families, are particularly at risk for exposure. Several studies have demonstrated the detrimental cognitive effects of prenatal exposure to pesticides, particularly organophosphates (OPs) within this high-risk group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn understanding of genetics is becoming increasingly relevant to receiving medical care. It is important for health care providers and educators, including genetic counselors, to understand patients' perceptions about trait transmission and their interpretation of terms used in biomedicine. Knowledge about the patient perspective about trait transmission is important when health care providers are not fluent in the patient's language.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
April 2022
The occupational health of immigrant workers in the United States is a major concern. This analysis describes two domains, organization of work and work safety culture, important to the occupational health of Latinx women in farmworker families. Sixty-seven Latinx women in North Carolina farmworker families completed a baseline and five follow-up questionnaires in 2019 through 2021.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPesticide exposure has been associated with adverse cognitive and neurological effects. However, neuroimaging studies aimed at examining the impacts of pesticide exposure on brain networks underlying abnormal neurodevelopment in children remain limited. It has been demonstrated that pesticide exposure in children is associated with disrupted brain anatomy in regions that make up the default mode network (DMN), a subnetwork engaged across a diverse set of cognitive processes, particularly higher-order cognitive tasks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Physical demands of work performed by Latinx hired child farmworkers are poorly understood. This paper describes crops, tasks performed, and the most common dimensions of physical demands of work in this population.
Methods: Survey interviews were conducted in 2017 with 202 Latinx children aged 10 to 17 years employed on North Carolina farms.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities
December 2022
Background: Mental health among low-income Latinx women in the United States (US), including those in farmworker families, is a health equity concern. This analysis (1) describes the depressive symptoms among Latinx women in rural farmworker families and urban non-farmworker families and (2) delineates immigration and acculturation, family composition and disruption, and financial characteristics associated with depressive symptoms experienced by these women.
Methods: Data are from a 2019-2020 cross-sectional survey of 66 rural farmworker and 52 urban non-farmworker women with a child participating in a study of pesticide exposure and neurocognitive development.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressors that can have lifelong detrimental health effects. ACEs are a concern for children of immigrant parents. The low-income mothers of 75 rural farmworker and 63 urban non-farmworker 8-year old Latinx children in immigrant families completed a standardized ACEs inventory.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although children 10-17 years can be hired to work in agriculture, little research has addressed possible musculoskeletal injuries. Children may be at particular risk for these injuries because of the repetitive and load bearing nature of work tasks. Existing research relies on child workers to self-report musculoskeletal injuries.
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