ABSTRACT

Purpose: The last 5 years have been the hottest years on record during the modern era. Due to increasing temperatures, outdoor workers are exposed to hotter working conditions and are at increasing risk for suffering from heat-related illness, heat stroke, and death. Unfortunately, a migrant farmworker died from heat stoke during 2018 in Southern Georgia, precipitating the need to understand baseline knowledge of heat-illness among farmworkers in Georgia, in partnership with the Farmworker Family Health Program.

Methods: Migrant farmworkers (n = 60), mean age of 28.75 years, 81.7% born male/identified as male, were surveyed to assess knowledge of heat-related illness first-aid. The survey used in this study was adapted from the Questionnaire for Heat-related Illness among Migrant Farmworker Populations in Southern Georgia, and the pilot questions on heat-related illness first aid were developed using the NIOSH Criteria for a Recommended Standard: Occupational Exposure to Heat and Hot Environments.

Results: Most knowledge-focused questions of heat-related illness were answered incorrectly by more than 50% of workers. Only 26.7% of workers identified the period of time to acclimatization, 0% of workers were able to identify the ten symptoms of heat-illness, and 45% of workers were able to correctly identify that if someone was sweating they could still be experiencing heat stroke. Of the workers, 50% knew that 9-1-1 was the emergency assistance number, only 20% of workers were able to identify the time between symptom onset and calling 9-1-1, and 0% of workers were able to correctly identify the anatomical locations to help cool a person experiencing heat stroke.

Conclusions: Farmworkers lack the appropriate level of knowledge to provide sufficient first-aid to a co-worker experiencing heat illness. The results of this study highlight the need to empower migrant farmworkers and employers in Southern Georgia through additional training so they can gain the first-aid knowledge necessary to prevent morbidity and mortality in high-heat conditions.

摘要

目的：最近5年是现代记录中最热的年份。由于温度升高，户外工作人员处于较热的工作环境中，因此罹患与热有关的疾病，中暑和死亡的风险增加。不幸的是，一名移民农民工于2018年在佐治亚州南部因中暑而死亡，这促使与农民工家庭健康计划合作，需要了解佐治亚州农民工中暑的基本知识。

方法：调查农民工（n = 60），平均年龄28.75岁，男81.7％出生/已确认为男性，以评估与热有关的疾病的急救知识。本研究中使用的调查改编自乔治亚州南部农民工之间与热有关的疾病调查表，有关热相关疾病急救的试点问题是根据《 NIOSH推荐标准：职业性热源》制定的。和炎热的环境。

结果：超过50％的工人错误地回答了大多数以热病为中心的知识问题。只有26.7％的工作人员确定了适应的时间，0％的工作人员能够识别出十种热病症状，而45％的工作人员能够正确地识别出如果有人出汗，他们仍然可能会发烧。中风。在工作人员中，有50％的人知道9-1-1是紧急救助电话号码，只有20％的工作人员能够识别出症状发作和呼叫9-1-1之间的时间，而0％的工作人员能够正确识别确定解剖位置，以帮助中暑的人降温。

结论：农场工人缺乏适当的知识水平，无法为遭受热病的同事提供足够的急救。这项研究的结果突出表明，有必要通过额外的培训来增强乔治亚州南部的农民工和雇主的权能，使他们能够获得必要的急救知识，以防止在高温条件下发病和死亡。