Micro-Processes of Latino Construction Worker Safety: Feasibility Of CATS
Principal Investigator: Joseph G. Grzywacz
Abstract:
Daily process designs, particularly those with electronic data collection, provide a powerful tool for linking situational characteristics, like exposure to occupational stressors, to individual outcomes like worker safety behavior and subsequent health and injury outcomes. Unfortunately, daily process designs are infrequently used in occupational health research and there have been no documented uses of these study designs with immigrant Latino workers, workers who frequently find themselves in the most dangerous occupations.
The goal of this exploratory/developmental project is to determine the feasibility of using daily-process designs with electronic data collection to better understand the role of occupational stress in work-related injury and illness among immigrant Latino workers. This goal will be achieved by accomplishing three specific aims, that include: (1) Documenting participation rates, attrition levels, adherence to a 21-day end-of-day daily diary protocol using computer assisted telephone surveys (CATS), and loss to follow-up over 6 months of immigrant workers; (2) Determining the quality of data collected from the daily process design; and (3) Identifying design features that could be modified to improve feasibility of daily process designs with immigrant Latinos.
A site-based sampling strategy will be used to recruit a representative but nonrandom sample of 120 immigrant Latino workers in the construction industry. Participants will complete four phases of data collection, including an interviewer-administered baseline survey, a 21 day end-of-day dairy study using CATS, a debriefing interview following the diary period, and a 6 month follow-up interview. Obtained data will be analyzed to answer basic questions about the feasibility of using daily-process designs with electronic data collection to better understand the role of occupational stress in work-related illness and potential injury among immigrant workers. An important component of these analyses is determining if collected data behave in ways consistent with the project’s conceptual model.
Funder: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (sub-contract through Center for Construction Safety and Health, Virginia Tech)