Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States.
Vietlead, Philadelphia, PA 19148, United States.
Ann Work Expo Health. 2023 Sep 21;67(8):938-951. doi: 10.1093/annweh/wxad044.
The nail salon industry in the US comprises mostly immigrant-owned, small mom-and-pop salons that employ primarily first-generation immigrant workers from Asia. Because of the cultural and language barriers, both owners and workers may not avail themselves of the occupational safety resources. We formed an academic-community partnership to co-design a feasibility study and multi-level occupational health intervention for Vietnamese-speaking salon owners, workers, and community-based organization.
The intervention for each salon included (i) 2-h in-person training covering chemical safety, infection control, musculoskeletal prevention, and workers' rights for both the owners and their employees, (ii) a tailored recommendation report for the owner, and (iii) check-ins with the owner during the 3-month follow-up. Community partner was trained to deliver the in-language training with technical assistance from the research team. Baseline and post-intervention individual data about health symptoms and behaviors, as well as personal chemical exposures were collected and analyzed.
A total of 44 participants from 12 consented salons enrolled in the study. One salon dropped out at follow-up due to change of ownership. Analysis of the differences between post-and pre-intervention showed a tendency toward reduction in some self-reported symptoms in the respiratory system, skin, and eyes, neurotoxicity score, as well as chemical exposures. We could not rule out seasonality as an explanation for these trends. Increase in self-efficacy in some areas was observed post-intervention.
Our study demonstrated a successful academic-community partnership to engage community members in the intervention study. While the intervention effects from this feasibility study should be interpreted with caution, our preliminary results indicated that our community-based intervention is a promising approach to reduce work-related exposures among Asian American nail salon workers.
美国的美甲沙龙行业主要由移民拥有，是小型夫妻店，员工主要是来自亚洲的第一代移民。由于文化和语言障碍，业主和工人可能都无法利用职业安全资源。我们成立了一个学术-社区伙伴关系，共同设计了一项针对讲越语的沙龙业主、工人和社区组织的可行性研究和多层次职业健康干预措施。
每个沙龙的干预措施包括：（i）为业主和员工提供 2 小时的面对面培训，涵盖化学安全、感染控制、肌肉骨骼预防和工人权利；（ii）为业主提供量身定制的建议报告；（iii）在 3 个月的随访期间与业主保持联系。社区合作伙伴接受了用目标语言提供培训的培训，并得到了研究团队的技术援助。在基线和干预后收集和分析个人健康症状和行为以及个人化学暴露的个体数据。
共有 12 家同意参与研究的沙龙的 44 名参与者入组。一家沙龙在随访时因业主变更而退出。对干预前后差异的分析表明，一些呼吸系统、皮肤和眼睛的自我报告症状、神经毒性评分以及化学暴露有减少的趋势。我们不能排除季节性因素是这些趋势的解释。干预后，一些领域的自我效能感有所增加。
我们的研究展示了学术-社区伙伴关系成功地使社区成员参与干预研究。虽然这项可行性研究的干预效果应谨慎解释，但我们的初步结果表明，我们的基于社区的干预措施是减少亚裔美国美甲沙龙工人职业相关暴露的有前途的方法。
