Abstract
Significance: Immigrant day laborers suffer from disproportionate occupational health risks from hazardous reconstruction jobs after natural disasters.Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial of a short-video educational intervention to improve safety knowledge and intent to engage in safety preventive behaviors among 98 Hispanic day laborers (49 randomized to video and 49 control). The short video featured a male promotor and a female promotora who narrated 3 stories of day laborers who were injured while doing construction work in post-Katrina New Orleans. The main outcome measures were changes in scores for day laborer-reported safety knowledge and safety behaviors derived from interviewer-delivered baseline and post-intervention surveys.Results: Video participants reported improvement in overall average safety knowledge score (mean score of 11.3 out of a max score of 12 or 94% when standardized to 0–100% scale), as compared to the control group (mean score of 8.6 or 72%) who were not offered the video (p < 0.00001). The intervention was highly successful in workers stating that they learned and were willing to change their safety preventive behaviors to reduce their occupational risk. The average safety behavior score was higher among those watching the video (17.2 out of a max of 22 or 78.1% when standardized on a scale 0–100%) as compared to control (14.5 or 65.9%) (p = 0.0024).Conclusion: A short video intervention can improve knowledge and intent to engage in preventive behaviors among Hispanic workers for which there is a dearth of construction safety preventive research.
Highlights
IntroductionThe construction industry has the second largest proportion of Hispanic workers with a higher rate of fatal [1, 2] and non-fatal occupational injuries [3,4,5], as compared to their white and black counterparts [6]
The United States (US) National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has designated immigrant Hispanic construction workers as a high-risk and high-need population
The video presentation featuring a male promotor and a female promotora was highly successful in improving reports of safety knowledge gained and workers stating that they would change safety behaviors to reduce their occupational risks
Summary
The construction industry has the second largest proportion of Hispanic workers with a higher rate of fatal [1, 2] and non-fatal occupational injuries [3,4,5], as compared to their white and black counterparts [6]. These disparities are heightened by the fact that construction-related injury rates are substantially underreported among Hispanics [3, 7, 8]. Partnerships with providers engaged with these communities allow implementing occupational programs to help prevent, and if necessary treat, day laborer’s injuries in a context of respect for patient’s privacy and trust to not release immigration status information
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
