Nieuwsma Julianna, Lee Joseph G L, Bloss Jamie E, LePrevost Catherine E, Mendez Israel M, Harwell Emery L, Cofie Leslie E
Department of Applied Ecology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
Department of Health Education and Promotion, College of Health and Human Performance, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
J Agromedicine. 2025 Jul;30(3):480-495. doi: 10.1080/1059924X.2025.2474130. Epub 2025 Mar 4.
Agricultural health and safety educators, including community health workers and Extension agents, represent an important community of practice, connecting agricultural workers (i.e. migrant and seasonal farmworkers) to health information and care. We sought to identify and evaluate existing education resources available to educators for use in health education and outreach with farmworkers.
This study used a systemized search process to identify health education materials in English and Spanish used in the United States. Two independent coders coded each material for its understandability and actionability using the Patient Educational Material Assessment Tool (PEMAT). We report descriptive statistics by type of material, topic, and publication date of the material.
We identified farmworker health education materials ( = 602) from across the United States. The average understandability score was 86%, and the average actionability score was 76%. Materials were most commonly print material in the format of handouts, brochures, and posters. Some topic areas (e.g. musculoskeletal injuries) had considerably more resources than others (e.g. green tobacco).
This research represents the first, to our knowledge, comprehensive assessment of health education materials for education and outreach to agricultural workers. While the average scores for understandability and actionability were high among materials, there is room to build a stronger set of resources in some topic areas and to modernize materials for electronic delivery. Using PEMAT tools can help the Extension and community health worker communities of practice improve the quality of materials they share with agricultural workers.
农业健康与安全教育工作者，包括社区卫生工作者和推广人员，是一个重要的实践群体，他们将农业工人（即流动和季节性农场工人）与健康信息及护理联系起来。我们试图识别并评估教育工作者可用于对农场工人进行健康教育和外展服务的现有教育资源。
本研究采用系统化检索流程，以识别美国使用的英文和西班牙文健康教育材料。两名独立编码员使用患者教育材料评估工具（PEMAT）对每种材料的易懂性和可操作性进行编码。我们按材料类型、主题和材料出版日期报告描述性统计数据。
我们从美国各地识别出602份农场工人健康教育材料。平均易懂性得分是86%，平均可操作性得分是76%。材料最常见的形式是讲义、手册和海报等印刷材料。一些主题领域（如肌肉骨骼损伤）的资源比其他领域（如绿色烟草）多得多。
据我们所知，这项研究是对用于农业工人教育和外展服务的健康教育材料的首次全面评估。虽然材料的平均易懂性和可操作性得分较高，但在一些主题领域仍有空间构建一套更强大的资源，并使材料实现电子化交付的现代化。使用PEMAT工具可以帮助推广人员和社区卫生工作者实践群体提高他们与农业工人分享的材料质量。
