Mull L D, Engel L S, Outterson B, Zahm S H
Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, Arlington, Virginia, USA.
Am J Ind Med. 2001 Nov;40(5):612-8. doi: 10.1002/ajim.10016.
There is little research into the long-term health effects of pesticides and other agricultural exposures among seasonal and migrant farmworkers in the United States. We present results of a feasibility study that established a cohort of farmworkers for use in epidemiologic research.
Subjects consisted of migrant and seasonal farmworkers who joined the cohort while seeking social services through members of the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) and were entered in the National Farmworker Database (NFD) between the end of 1997 and March 1999. We designed an add-on interview with information that enhanced the utility of the database for epidemiologic research.
We recruited and obtained basic demographic and employment information on 5,597 farmworkers at very modest cost and effort. Subjects were mostly seasonal (61.5%), female (56.7%), and Hispanic (67.4%), with a median age of 27. Most (62.6%) had not completed high school; almost all (99.1%) reported being U.S. citizens or permanent residents, an eligibility requirement for some of the services provided by AFOP. The majority (62.5%) had engaged in farmwork for less than 10 years, but had performed a wide variety of tasks on different crops, including row crops and tree fruits. Picking was the most common task reported. Most subjects had performed farmwork in Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Michigan, or Georgia. For usual source of health care, 63.7% reported use of U.S. hospitals or emergency rooms/clinics, 42.0% U.S. private physicians, and 29.7% migrant health clinics. Among subjects reporting a prior diagnosis of cancer, primary sources of health care for treatment of that cancer included U.S. private physicians (61.9%), U.S. hospitals or emergency rooms/clinics (23.8%), and migrant health clinics (10.5%).
Results suggest that by adding a brief interview to the existing NFD data collection process, which was designed for other purposes, it is feasible to create an efficient tool for conducting longitudinal epidemiologic research among farmworkers.
在美国，针对季节性和流动农场工人接触农药及其他农业暴露对长期健康影响的研究较少。我们展示了一项可行性研究的结果，该研究建立了一个用于流行病学研究的农场工人群体。
研究对象包括流动和季节性农场工人，他们在通过农场工人机会项目协会（AFOP）成员寻求社会服务时加入了该队列，并于1997年底至1999年3月期间被录入国家农场工人数据库（NFD）。我们设计了一次补充访谈，获取的信息增强了该数据库在流行病学研究中的实用性。
我们以非常适度的成本和努力招募了5597名农场工人，并获取了他们的基本人口统计学和就业信息。研究对象大多为季节性工人（61.5%）、女性（56.7%）、西班牙裔（67.4%），年龄中位数为27岁。大多数（62.6%）未完成高中学业；几乎所有人（99.1%）报告为美国公民或永久居民，这是AFOP提供的一些服务的资格要求。大多数（62.5%）从事农活不到10年，但在不同作物上执行过各种各样的任务，包括大田作物和果树。采摘是报告中最常见的任务。大多数研究对象曾在佛罗里达州、北卡罗来纳州、得克萨斯州、密歇根州或佐治亚州从事农活。对于通常的医疗保健来源，63.7%报告使用美国医院或急诊室/诊所，42.0%报告使用美国私人医生，29.7%报告使用流动医疗诊所。在报告曾被诊断患有癌症（并接受治疗）的研究对象中，治疗该癌症的主要医疗保健来源包括美国私人医生（61.9%）、美国医院或急诊室/诊所（23.8%）以及流动医疗诊所（10.5%）。
结果表明，在为其他目的设计的现有NFD数据收集过程中增加一次简短访谈，创建一个用于在农场工人中开展纵向流行病学研究的有效工具是可行的。
