National farmworker database: Establishing a farmworker cohort for epidemiologic research

Background There is little research into the long-term health effects of pe sticides and other agricultural exposures among seasonal and migrant farmwo rkers in the United States. We present results of a feasibility study that established a cohort of farmworkers for use in epidemiologic research. Methods Subjects consisted of migrant and seasonal farmworkers who joined t he cohort while seeking social sen,ices through inembers 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. Uc desig ned an add-on interview with information that enhanced the utility of the d atabase for epidemiologic research. Results We recruited and obtained basic demographic and employment informat ion on 5,597 farmworkers at very modest cost and effort. Subjects were most ly seasonal (61.5%), female (56.7%), and Hispanic (67.4%), with a median ag e of 27. Most (62.6%) had not completed high school; almost all (99.1%) rep orted being U.S. citizens or permanent residents, an eligibility requiremen t for some of the sen,ices provided by AFOP. The majority (62.5%) had engag ed 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 Flor ida, North Carolina, Texas, Michigan, or Georgia. For usual source of healt h 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 subjec ts reporting a prior diagnosis of cancer, primary sources of health care fo r treatment of that cancer included U.S. private physicians (61.9%), U.S. h ospitals or emergency rooms/clinics (23.8%), and migrant health clinics (10 .5%). Conclusions Results suggest that by, adding a brief interview to the existi ng NFD data collection process, which was designed for other purposes, it i s feasible to create all efficient tool for conducting longitudinal epidemi ologic research among farmworkers. Am. J. Ind. Med. 40:612-618, 2001. (C) 2 001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.