Recruiting a community sample in collaboration with farmworkers

Few studies have examined health effects of pesticides in farmworkers, poss ibly because researchers perceive this population to be relatively inaccess ible. We conducted an epidemiologic study of health effects among farmworke rs in two towns in central Florida-Apopka and Pierson. Apopka is a suburb o f Orlando with a diffuse farmworker community working in many crops, wherea s Pierson is a small rural town with a tightly knit farmworker community wo rking mainly in ferns. We collaborated with the Farmworker Association of F lorida, a grassroots organization representing 6,700 farmworker families. W e identified potential participants using membership lists of the Community Trust Federal Credit Union. Members of the Farmworker Association served a s recruiters for the study, locating randomly selected Credit Union members and administering a screening interview to determine eligibility. In Apopk a 90% of contacted workers were screened, and 79% of eligible workers parti cipated in the study; corresponding proportions in Pierson were 94 and 85%. Farmworkers who had worked for 6-15 years and those who worked in a define d type of agriculture (nursery, citrus, or ferns) were more likely to enrol l than others. Thus, while the response rate was good for a multistage recr uiting process, study participants had a slightly different work history fr om those who chose not to enroll. We conclude that it is possible to conduc t a study of health outcomes in farmworkers with a defined population and g ood response rates. Collaboration with the community is essential to the su ccess of such a project, and community characteristics can affect response rates.