Characterization of Health Issues amongst Latino Agricultural and Non-agricultural Workers

In 2012, the United States Department of Agriculture Census identified 13,159 farms and 30,000 agricultural workers in Puerto Rico, who cultivate different agricultural products. Currently, there is a dearth of information about health issues related to agricultural workers in Puerto Rico. Using clinical diagnostics, this work compares common health issues amongst a population of 4,686 agricultural and non-agricultural workers who received medical services at a local Outpatient (OPD) Clinic between May 2016 and June 2017. The data showed that agricultural workers had a slightly higher total number of diagnostics within the health conditions of interest in comparison to non-agricultural workers. Within the agricultural worker group, females had proportionally higher number of health conditions than males. Data show a strong relationship amongst gender and diagnostics as cancer, sinusitis, hypertension and allergies. On the other hand, asthma diagnostic was dependent on occupational status. Overall, 42% of participants had hypertension diagnostics followed by 8% who had an asthma diagnostic, as the two most common health conditions. The paper will describe demographic characteristics, the data analysis and Chi-Square tests to compare diagnostics amongst gender and occupational status, as well as ideas for future work.

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