IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2019i1p248-d303141.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health and Occupational Injury Experienced by Latinx Child Farmworkers in North Carolina, USA

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas A. Arcury

    (Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA)

  • Taylor J. Arnold

    (Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA)

  • Sara A. Quandt

    (Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA)

  • Haiying Chen

    (Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA)

  • Gregory D. Kearney

    (Department of Public Health, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27834, USA)

  • Joanne C. Sandberg

    (Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA)

  • Jennifer W. Talton

    (Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA)

  • Melinda F. Wiggins

    (Student Action with Farmworkers, Durham, NC 27705, USA)

  • Stephanie S. Daniel

    (Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA)

Abstract

Children as young as 10 years old are hired to work on farms in the United States (U.S.). These children are largely Latinx. Using interview data collected from 202 North Carolina Latinx child farmworkers in 2017, this analysis documents the heath characteristics and occupational injuries of Latinx child farmworkers and delineates characteristics associated with their health and occupational injuries. Latinx child farmworkers include girls (37.6%) and boys (62.4%), aged 10 to 17 years, with 17.8% being migrant farmworkers. Three-quarters reported receiving medical and dental care in the past year. Respiratory (15.8%) and vision (20.3%) problems were prevalent. Girls more than boys, and younger more than older children had greater health service utilization. Occupational injuries were common, with 26.2% reporting a traumatic injury, 44.1% a dermatological injury, 42.6% a musculoskeletal injury, and 45.5% heat-related illness in the past year. Age increased the odds of reporting work injuries and heat-related illness, and being a non-migrant reduced the odds of reporting work injuries. These results emphasize the need for greater documentation of child farmworker occupational health and safety. They underscore the need to change occupational safety policy to ensure that children working in agriculture have the same protections as those working in all other U.S. industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas A. Arcury & Taylor J. Arnold & Sara A. Quandt & Haiying Chen & Gregory D. Kearney & Joanne C. Sandberg & Jennifer W. Talton & Melinda F. Wiggins & Stephanie S. Daniel, 2019. "Health and Occupational Injury Experienced by Latinx Child Farmworkers in North Carolina, USA," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2019:i:1:p:248-:d:303141
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/1/248/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/1/248/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tianyuan Luo & Cesar L. Escalante, 2018. "Health care service utilization of documented and undocumented hired farmworkers in the U.S," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(7), pages 923-934, September.
    2. Marlenga, B. & Berg, R.L. & Linneman, J.G. & Brison, R.J. & Pickett, W., 2007. "Changing the child labor laws for agriculture: Impact on injury," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(2), pages 276-282.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mann Stefan, 2018. "A Mesoeconomic Approach to a Basic Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, June.
    2. Morrongiello, Barbara A. & Marlenga, Barbara & Berg, Richard & Linneman, James & Pickett, William, 2007. "A new approach to understanding pediatric farm injuries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(7), pages 1364-1371, October.
    3. Tianyuan Luo & Genti Kostandini, 2023. "Omnibus or Ominous immigration laws? Immigration policy and mental health of the Hispanic population," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 90-106, January.
    4. Thomas A. Arcury & Sydney A. Smith & Jennifer W. Talton & Sara A. Quandt, 2022. "The Abysmal Organization of Work and Work Safety Culture Experienced by North Carolina Latinx Women in Farmworker Families," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-19, April.
    5. Kennith Culp & Rex Kuye & Kelley J. Donham & Risto Rautiainen & Michelle Umbarger-Mackey & Shannon Marquez, 2007. "Agricultural-Related Injury and Illness in The Gambia," Clinical Nursing Research, , vol. 16(3), pages 170-188, August.
    6. Jónína Einarsdóttir & Geir Gunnlaugsson, 2024. "Child Fatalities in Tractor-Related Accidents in Rural Iceland, 1918–2024: A Historical Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(10), pages 1-19, September.
    7. Maoyong Fan & Mimi Houston & Anita Alves Pena, 2014. "Determinants of child labor in the modern United States: Evidence from agricultural workers and their children and concerns for ongoing public policy," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(1), pages 287-306.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2019:i:1:p:248-:d:303141. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.