Cancer Knowledge Among Mexican Immigrant Farmworkers in North Carolina

Abstract

Latino farmworkers are exposed to a number of carcinogens in the workplace. Cancer survival rates for Latinos are below average. This paper describes Mexican immigrant farmworkers' knowledge of colorectal, breast, and testicular cancer, and compares farmworkers' cancer knowledge to that of other Mexican immigrants. Survey interviews for this study were conducted with 100 farmworkers and 100 non-farmworkers in 2015 in North Carolina as part of an ongoing community-based participatory research project. We found low to moderate levels of knowledge about colorectal, breast, and testicular cancer among farmworkers. Compared to non-farmworkers, farmworkers had similar levels of knowledge about breast and testicular cancer, but slightly lower knowledge about colorectal cancer (p = 0.0087). Few studies have used quantitative methods to assess farmworkers' knowledge of specific types of cancer. Our results demonstrate a need for increased dissemination of existing cancer education programs and further research to develop additional educational tools.

Barriers and Facilitators to Colorectal Cancer Screening Within a Hispanic Population

“…With regard to knowledge, only a quarter of our participants reported awareness of colonoscopy, which has been found in other studies also among Hispanics (Fernández et al, 2015;Furgurson et al, 2018;Gimeno-García, Quintero, Nicolás-Pérez, & Jiménez-Sosa, 2011). In contrast, about half of the participants were familiar with stool-based testing, which may be explained by the lack of accessibility to colonoscopy among the Hispanic population due to cost (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013), resulting in more physicians recommending stool-based testing.…”

Community-based participatory design of a community health worker breast cancer training intervention for South Florida Latinx farmworkers

“…Community-based participatory research (CBPR) facilitates collaborative research partnerships that enable meaningful consideration of sociocultural context [21], and has been successfully conducted with farmworker communities around the US to study and address occupational hazards like pesticide exposure [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30], and to promote mental and physical health promotion and healthcare utilization [31][32][33][34][35]. Numerous community-based studies related to breast cancer have evidenced barriers to care for Spanish-speaking Latina farmworkers including fear, stigma, low education and health literacy levels, and have stressed the importance of targeted outreach strategies and the involvement of community members in the development and implementation of education and screening interventions to ensure that specific needs are met [36][37][38][39][40][41].…”

Results from brief educational intervention and health screenings: A community health study of Latinos in Southwest Florida

“…Several studies looked at knowledge level among Latinos on gamut of health-related topics such as oral health, ocular health, diabetes risk, and cancer. [ 24 25 26 27 28 ] However, educational interventions to improve knowledge levels were limited and only included patients already seeking healthcare and lacked diversity in sample characteristics. [ 29 30 31 ]…”