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Literature supports an association between work and cardiovascular disease in adults. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between current work status and elevated blood pressure in Hispanic adolescents. Participants were students in Hidalgo County, located along the Texas-Mexico border. Participants enrolled in the cohort study in ninth grade with assessments completed once a year for up to three years. Participants completed a self-report survey, while staff measured height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and were screened for acanthosis nigricans. A generalized linear regression model with a logit link function was constructed to assess current work status and elevated blood pressure. Of the 508 participants, 29% had elevated blood pressure, which was associated with being male and other chronic disease indicators (e.g., acanthosis nigricans, overweight/obesity). The mean probability for elevated blood pressure was higher among currently working adolescents compared to those who were not. Findings were statistically significant (p < 0.05) at baseline. The findings illustrate that a large proportion of adolescents along the Texas-Mexico border may have elevated blood pressure and that working may be associated with it. Subsequent research is needed to confirm these findings, as well as to identify the mechanism for how work may increase hypertension in adolescents.

This cross-sectional study examined the association between self-reported nonfatal occupational injuries among high school students in South Texas and their self-reported general use of substances. Data were collected using a self-administered, anonymous questionnaire (n=3365). The independent variables included alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, inhalant, and steroid use. The dependent variable was occupational injury. Adjusting for grade, sex, ethnicity, and work intensity, odds ratios were calculated using logistic regression. Supporting an association with each substance, odds ratios consistently strengthened as use increased. Additional research is merited given the scant number of previous studies. The associations for inhalant (OR, 5.61) and steroid (OR, 7.63) use argue for their inclusion in future research. Keywords: Adolescents, occupational injury, substance use, INTRODUCTION A substantial number of adolescents are working currently in the United States (1). The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that on average each month during the school year [...]

Traditionally, structured or coded data fields from a crash report are the basis for identifying crashes involving different types of vehicles, such as farm equipment. However, using only the structured data can lead to misclassification of vehicle or crash type. The objective of the current article is to examine the use of machine learning methods for identifying agricultural crashes based on the crash narrative and to transfer the application of models to different settings (e.g., future years of data, other states). Different data representations (e.g., bag-of-words [BoW], bag-of-keywords [BoK]) and document classification algorithms (e.g., support vector machine [SVM], multinomial naïve Bayes classifier [MNB]) were explored using Texas and Louisiana crash narratives across different time periods. The BoK-support vector classifier (SVC), BoK-MNB, and BoW-SVC models trained with Texas data were better predictive models than the baseline rule-based algorithm on the future year test data, with F1 scores of 0.88, 0.89, 0.85 vs. 0.84. The BoK-MNB trained with Louisiana data performed the closest to the baseline rule-based algorithm on the future year test data (F1 scores, 0.91 baseline rule-based algorithm vs. 0.89 BoK-MNB). The BoK-SVC and BoK-MNB models trained with Texas and Louisiana data were better productive models for Texas future year test data with F1 scores 0.89 and 0.90 vs. 0.84. The BoK-MNB model trained with both states' data was a better predictive model for the Louisiana future year test data, F1 score 0.94 vs. 0.91. The findings of this study support that machine learning methodologies can potentially reduce the amount of human power required to develop key word lists and manually review narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, there is limited literature on occupational pesticide exposures despite being associated with adverse health outcomes, including in large states such as Texas. The purpose of this article is to characterize occupational pesticide poison center exposures in Texas. Descriptive statistics were used to describe exposures (eg, exposure routes, type of pesticide, medical outcome, clinical effects, and temporal/seasonal patterns). From 2000 to 2015, there were 2,303 occupational pesticide poison center exposures. Common types of reported pesticides were insecticides (67.3%), herbicides (17.7%), and repellents (5.8%). The highest proportion of exposures were among those aged 20 to 29 years (24.9%). The top clinical effect categories were gastrointestinal (25.8%), neurological (19.2%), and dermal (14.9%). Characterizing occupational pesticide poison center exposures can support improved surveillance systems and guide future research or interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This article describes how perceived discrimination shapes the way Latino farmworkers encounter injuries and seek out treatment. Methods: After 5 months of ethnographic fieldwork, 89 open-ended, semistructured interviews were analyzed. NVivo was used to code and qualitatively organize the interviews and field notes. Finally, codes, notes, and co-occurring dynamics were used to iteratively assess the data for major themes. Results: The primary source of perceived discrimination was the "boss" or farm owner. Immigrant status was also a significant influence on how farmworkers perceived the discrimination. Specifically, the ability to speak English and length of stay in the United States were related to stronger perceptions of discrimination. Finally, farm owners compelled their Latino employees to work through their injuries without treatment. Conclusions: This ethnographic account brings attention to how discrimination and lack of worksite protections are implicated in farmworkers' injury experiences and suggests the need for policies that better safeguard vulnerable workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To honor Tom Waters's work on emerging occupational health issues, we review the literature on physical along with chemical exposures and their impact on functional outcomes.Background: Many occupations present the opportunity for exposure to multiple hazardous exposures, including both physical and chemical factors. However, little is known about how these different factors affect functional ability and injury. The goal of this review is to examine the relationships between these exposures, impairment of the neuromuscular and musculoskeletal systems, functional outcomes, and health problems with a focus on acute injury.Method: Literature was identified using online databases, including PubMed, Ovid Medline, and Google Scholar. References from included articles were searched for additional relevant articles.Results: This review documented the limited existing literature that discussed cognitive impairment and functional disorders via neurotoxicity for physical exposures (heat and repetitive loading) and chemical exposures (pesticides, volatile organic compounds [VOCs], and heavy metals).Conclusion: This review supports that workers are exposed to physical and chemical exposures that are associated with negative health effects, including functional impairment and injury. Innovation in exposure assessment with respect to quantifying the joint exposure to these different exposures is especially needed for developing risk assessment models and, ultimately, preventive measures.Application: Along with physical exposures, chemical exposures need to be considered, alone and in combination, in assessing functional ability and occupationally related injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effects on motor vehicle crashes of a policy change that led to the introduction of a very large number of off-sale alcohol outlets in Lubbock, Texas. Times-series analysis of total crashes and single-vehicle nighttime (SVN) crashes was used to compare the periods before and after the policy change in Lubbock and in a comparison area. The results of the analysis revealed some weak effects on total crashes, but no statistically significant effects were found for SVN crashes. Possible reasons for the essentially null findings of the current study regarding the effects of the policy change on motor vehicle crashes are discussed. These include the fact that there were a small number of off-sale outlets already present in the community and that motor vehicle travel immediately following alcohol consumption is less likely to occur with alcohol purchased from an off-sale outlet compared to an on-sale outlet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assessed potential biases introduced by using maternal proxies for reporting work hazards, illness symptoms, and acute agricultural injuries in studies of migrant farmworker families. A convenience sample of 79 mother/spouse and mother/oldest child pairs was obtained from a two-year cohort study of migrant farmworker families from Starr County, Texas. Pairs completed an interviewer-administered survey including 27 close-ended items describing work history, illness symptoms, and acute injuries during the 2001 migration season. Data analysis included prevalence, sensitivity, and specificity measures. Maternal proxy reports of subjective symptoms of a spouse or child were approximately 50% lower than spouse or child self-reports. Sensitivity and specificity of mothers' responses regarding hazard items were higher for spouses than for children. For items measuring illness symptoms, sensitivity of mothers' responses for spouses and oldest child pairs was generally less than 30%; however, specificity was generally above 90%. For acute agricultural injury, the mother/spouse sensitivity was 75%, the mother/child 40%, and specificities were 100% and 97%, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity for spouse pairs was generally higher than mother/child pairs for work hazards, illness symptoms and acute injuries. While mothers may be acceptable proxies for spouses in this population, efforts should be made to collect data directly from adolescent children in studies of agricultural injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about academic performance, health, and social functioning of youth from migrant farmworker families. This study was designed to compare demographic, academic, health, and social data between migrant and nonmigrant youth residing in South Texas. Anonymous cross-sectional survey data were collected from 6954 middle and 3565 high school students. About 5% of South Texas middle and high school students reported belonging to a migrant family. Compared with nonmigrant students, migrant youth were more likely to miss and arrive late to school, sleep in class, and study fewer hours weekly. Migrant students reported fewer hours of nightly sleep, fewer hours spent with their friends, and more minor illnesses than nonmigrant youth. These results demonstrate the need for interventions specifically targeted to this vulnerable adolescent population.