Focus groups revealed how community health workers in North Carolina find, verify, and process health information for migrant and seasonal farmworkers.

Abstract

Community health workers (CHWs) bridge the gap in health and social services delivery for marginalized communities, providing critical health information to those with limited access to health resources. The purpose of our study was to understand CHWs' approaches to identifying salient and credible health information for migrant and seasonal farmworkers in rural North Carolina (NC). Two focus group discussions were held with CHWs in eastern NC and one in western NC in February 2020. CHWs seek health information on chronic health conditions disproportionately experienced by farmworkers such as diabetes and high blood pressure. They search for information from existing resources in their possession, via the internet, and through consultation with health professionals. CHWs also verify the information and transform the content into resources that are accessible to farmworkers. Our findings suggest that CHWs possess a strong set of information literacy skills that could be enhanced through additional training in crediting sources, creating new materials, and organization and storage. This study adds to the very limited body of knowledge about how CHWs seek and transmit information to their communities and sheds light on their information need and literacy abilities.