There are approximately 2.4 million farmworkers in the United States, the majority of whom are Latino immigrants. Work is an important social determinant of health that has a powerful influence on health disparities, and farmworkers are at greater risk of exposure to physical and psychosocial work hazards, lower wages and economic insecurity, unfavorable employment policies, and barriers to accessing healthcare. For example, farmworkers typically work long hours but in the US are federally excluded from receiving guaranteed overtime pay. In spite of these challenges, U.S. farmworkers have built strong structures to promote greater health and well-being, including networks of community-based organizations, farmworker unions, and informal community groups.


The purpose of this presentation is to share our transdisciplinary approach in this emerging field. Specifically, we share our development and implementation of a longitudinal, mixed-methods, and community-based participatory research (CBPR) study to examine risk and protective factors for farmworker health and well-being, and to evaluate the impact of a policy intervention, in the form of the implementation of a State-level farmworker overtime legislation over its 5-year phase-in period.


For years, we have been working in partnership with the farmworker community through community-based organizations, academic research institutions, and a community advisory board. We share how this partnership was built and our collaborative processes for conceptualizing and implementing each phase of our research partnership. We also share our methodological approach to data collection and dissemination to this point, including interviews, focus groups, and two waves of surveys. We also discuss our approach to dissemination of findings to community stakeholders.


Overall, we believe that these CBPR approaches serve as important examples for research teams to draw from to build trust and enhance societal applications when engaging in research activities considering work as a social determinant of health for at-risk or vulnerable community members.