COVID-19 Pandemic among Latinx Farmworker and Nonfarmworker Families in North Carolina: Knowledge, Risk Perceptions, and Preventive Behaviors

  1. Sara A. Quandt
  2. Natalie J. LaMonto
  3. Dana C. Mora
  4. Jennifer W. Talton
  5. Paul J. Laurienti
  6. Thomas A. Arcury

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic poses substantial threats to Latinx farmworkers and other immigrants in food production and processing. Classified as essential, such workers cannot shelter at home. Therefore, knowledge and preventive behaviors are important to reduce COVID-19 spread in the community. (2) Methods: Respondents for 67 families with at least one farmworker (FWF) and 38 comparable families with no farmworkers (nonFWF) in North Carolina completed a telephone survey in May 2020. The survey queried knowledge of COVID-19, perceptions of its severity, self-efficacy, and preventive behaviors. Detailed data were collected to document household members’ social interaction and use of face coverings. (3) Results: Knowledge of COVID-19 and prevention methods was high in both groups, as was its perceived severity. NonFWF had higher self-efficacy for preventing infection. Both groups claimed to practice preventive behaviors, though FWF emphasized social avoidance and nonFWF emphasized personal hygiene. Detailed social interactions showed high rates of inter-personal contact at home, at work, and in the community with more mask use in nonFWF than FWF. (4) Conclusions: Despite high levels of knowledge and perceived severity for COVID-19, these immigrant families were engaged in frequent interpersonal contact that could expose community members and themselves to COVID-19.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.3390/ijerph17165786
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.14.20153429: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The current study used a telephone survey to reach the mother of the children in these families in May, 2020, when no face-to-face contact between study staff and study participants was permitted by the Institutional Review Board due to COVID-19-related health concerns for research participants.
    Consent: For both samples, mothers were contacted by a bilingual staff member who explained the overall study procedures, answered questions, and, if the mother agreed to participate, obtained signed informed consent from the mother and assent from the child.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    REDCap is hosted at Wake Forest School of Medicine through the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
    REDCap
    suggested: (REDCap, RRID:SCR_003445)
    All analyses were done using SAS v 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) and p-values < .
    SAS Institute
    suggested: (Statistical Analysis System, RRID:SCR_008567)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Other study limitations include the fact that behaviors were self-reported and not observed. Responses could not be anonymous because they were collected by interviewers that the women had known through participation in the larger study; this could have increased the social desirability in responses concerning behavior. Small sample sizes prevent more detailed analyses of data. Nevertheless, this study represents a unique opportunity to document the knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors of Latinx immigrants in the US during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, farmworkers are often a hidden and difficult to reach population. This study demonstrates that even with a strong knowledge base, these farmworker families lack the self-efficacy to avoid the coronavirus and COVID-19. While they appear to believe that they are following public health recommendations on physical distancing and wearing masks, detailed data on their social interactions and use of personal protective equipment show that this is not the case. A comparison group of urban-dwelling Latinx immigrants had greater self-efficacy, which might led to the greater use of masks as personal protection reported by respondents in these non-farmworker families.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.14.20153429v1 on medRxiv