Stress, Mental Health, and Coping Among Workers in the Northern California Cannabis Industry: A Qualitative Descriptive Analysis.

California is home to a multibillion-dollar cannabis (marijuana) industry, but little is known about the occupational health and safety hazards faced by cannabis workers and even less of the stress, mental health, and coping mechanisms among these workers. Previous research has been based on long-term workers at legal businesses, but most California cannabis is produced and sold unlawfully. There are many seasonal workers whose experiences have not been studied.

California cannabis cultivation and processing workers: A qualitative analysis of physiological exposures and health effects.

Introduction: Cannabis is a multi-billion-dollar California industry, but little is known about the occupational hazards or health experiences of cannabis cultivation workers. Respiratory and dermal exposures, musculoskeletal hazards, and other agricultural hazards have been identified in previous research. Even in a post-legalization framework, cannabis work is stigmatized and most cannabis is still produced illegally.

Feasibility of a Bi-national Consulate-based Teleophthalmology Screening and Referral Protocol for Diabetic Retinopathy among Mexican Migrants in the United States.

Aims: To evaluate a bi-national consulate-based teleophthalmology screening service for diabetic retinopathy (DR) among Mexican migrants in the U.S.

Methods: Adult visitors (n=508) at Mexican consulates in California with self-reported diabetes underwent questionnaires and fundus photography.

The health status of latino immigrant women in the United States and future health policy implications of the affordable care act.

Immigrant women of Mexican birth face unique health challenges in the United States. They are at increased risk for developing many preventable health conditions due in part to limited access to healthcare and benefits, legal status, and inadequate income. Increased vulnerability of women has established a growing need to focus on their healthcare needs because of their role, position, and influence in the family.

The effect of migration on HIV high-risk behaviors among Mexican migrants.

Background: Previous studies have shown an association between Mexican migration to the United States and an increased frequency of HIV high-risk behaviors among male Mexican migrants. However, the individual level change in these behaviors after migration has not been quantified.

Objective: To estimate the change in HIV high-risk behaviors among Mexican migrants after migration to the United States.

Pandemics and vaccines: perceptions, reactions, and lessons learned from hard-to-reach Latinos and the H1N1 campaign.

This paper examines knowledge, risk perception, and attitudes around the H1N1 pandemic among Latino hard-to-reach (HTR) populations in the United States. Ten focus groups were conducted throughout California (N=90), representing Latino immigrants disproportionately affected by H1N1: farmworkers, indigenous Mexicans, pregnant women, and children. Overall, participants were aware of the H1N1 epidemic and common prevention practices.

Health of migrants: working towards a better future.

For international migrants, in particular for those who cross without the required documentation, there are a number of health threats and problems that may begin during transit and a number that occur as a result of migrants' socio-economic status in the receiving country. This article discusses the health status of Mexican immigrants in the United States including their access to health care, health disparities, and the social determinants of health among this population, with a focus on the health of women and children.

Identity, desire and truth: homosociality and homoeroticism in Mexican migrant communities in the USA.

This paper examines the construction of a homoerotic social scene among Mexican migrants in California. It analyses the discourses of migrant men in the cities of San Diego and Fresno who identify themselves as heterosexual and have not had sexual experiences with men and those of members of civil society organisations doing HIV prevention work with migrant men, to show how an identity-based model of sexuality used by the HIV prevention organisations is counter to the strategic, non-identity-based model constructed by migrant men. With this incongruence as its starting point, the paper offers a critique both of the epistemological factors underlying the category of 'men who have sex with men' and the logic running through HIV prevention discourses that adhere to the Foucauldian notion of the deployment of sexuality, which demands both truth and coherence in subjects' sexuality.

Heading south: why Mexican immigrants in California seek health services in Mexico.

Objectives: To Identify factors that explain why some Mexican immigrants in California use health services in Mexico.

Methods: California Health Interview Survey 2001 data were analyzed for medical care, dental care, and/or prescription drug purchases in Mexico in the previous year. Logistic regressions estimated the effect on use of need, availability, accessibility, and acceptability among immigrants from Mexico.

[Migration and ruralization of AIDS: reports on vulnerability of indigenous communities in Mexico].

Objective: To evaluate the vulnerability for STI/HIV among Mexican indigenous women in common law marriage with men who practice sex without condom.

Methods: Ethnography study undertaken in indigenous villages of Michoacán and Oaxaca, Mexico, in February 2004 and December 2005. These rural communities are characterized by high migration rates, extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS cases.

Willingness to pay for cross-border health insurance between the United States and Mexico.

This paper estimates the demand for a binational health plan comprising preventive and ambulatory care in the United States and comprehensive care in Mexico. The results show that 62 percent of the surveyed population were interested in the product, and 57 percent were willing to pay $75-$125 a month if services in Mexico were provided in public hospitals. Only 23 percent were willing to pay $150-$250 a month for the same plan if services in Mexico were offered through private providers.

Access to preventive services for adults of Mexican origin.

Immigrants arrive in the U.S. with better than average health, which declines over time.

Promising outreach practices: enrolling low-income children in health insurance programs in California.

Strategies used by outreach workers to successfully enroll underserved and uninsured California children into low cost health insurance programs such as MediCal and Healthy Families are examined. Outreach workers are particularly effective in enrolling and retaining hard to reach populations, especially immigrant families, in health programs. Skilled in grassroots communications and members of the communities they serve, outreach workers are key to building viral community support.

Abortion beliefs and practices among midwives (parteras) in a rural Mexican township.

Reproduction and motherhood are among the most important components of women's identity throughout Mexico and, for many women, are the only vehicles for gaining recognition and status in the family and community. At the same time, however, abortion is a central experience in the lives of many women and carries with it the complexities and contradictions of women's reproductive and sexual health. This paper presents results from an ethnographic study conducted with midwives in one rural township of Morelos, Mexico to understand their conceptualizations of and practices related to abortion and postabortion care.