Abstract
Occupational health surveillance data on hired farmworker women are not currently available on a national level. Descriptive results from the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS), including its Occupational Health Supplement (1998-2002), for 2,535 hired farmworker women will be presented. The NAWS is the only national source of information on the demographic, employment, and health characteristics of hired farmworkers in crop agriculture. Sponsored by the Department of Labor, the NAWS is an employment-based, random survey using face-to-face interviews collected in three cycles each year, reflecting the seasonality of agricultural production and employment. SUDAAN 9.0.1 was used for analyses. Results showed that 85% of women were younger than 45 years of age, 85% were Hispanic, and 71% were born in Mexico. Eighty-nine percent of the women considered the US their country of permanent residence, and 72% had been in the US for more than 2 years. Forty-two percent reported not having authorization to work in the US. Fifty seven percent were married and 78% had children. Highest prevalence estimates for health conditions included musculoskeletal pain (22%) and skin problems (13%). Data on characteristics of farm jobs, including crop type, hours worked, wages, benefits, and access to health care will be presented. Logistic regression with adjustment for age, ethnicity, education, and smoking, shows that legal status, hours worked per week, number of years doing farm work, and crop type are independently associated with having visited a healthcare professional in the past 2 years. Thus, farmworker women represent a vulnerable population for whom information and prevention are needed.