Health Communications for Migrant Produce Workers in the U.S. Open Access
Rodriguez Morales, Coralis K. (Spring 2021)
Abstract
In April 2020, produce workers were declared “essential workers” to protect America’s food supply chain. This meant that produce workers had to work during stay-at-home orders enacted nationwide. Workers were disproportionally impacted by COVID-19 outbreaks which created the need to inform this community on COVID-19 preventive measures. High prevalence of limited literacy, a monolingual Spanish population, and difficult to understand guidance, produced gaps in information among produce workers. The goal of this special studies project was to protect produce workers and their community by keeping them informed on COVID-19 protective measures through the development of a series of infographics with COVID-19 information using visuals and plain language. A total of 20 messages were developed based on information obtained from federal and non-federal resources. The messages covered topics related to direct and indirect transmission of COVID-19, face coverings, and symptoms. These messages were transformed into infographics with concise messaging and visuals that could deliver the message to workers with limited literacy. The English versions of these infographics were analyzed to determine the readability level and were later manually translated into Spanish. To ensure that the content and visuals were meeting the project’s goal, partners from Oregon State University and Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León assisted with providing important feedback during the development of infographics. With this feedback, several changes were made to improve the messages and general aesthetics of the infographics. A total of 42 infographics were developed with the English versions ranging from 3rd to 8th grade level of readability. A guiding document on how to use these infographics was also created describing original source content, usage, placement, grade level of the infographics, and descriptions of the images included in each infographic. This project produced new communications materials available to workers and growers to download for free, helping close some gaps in access to information. Lastly, it has provided one more tool to the food and agriculture industry to help keep produce workers informed on COVID-19.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Literature Review 1
Essential Workers 1
Vulnerability of Produce Workers 2
Vulnerability to COVID-19 7
Effective Communication for Produce Workers 11
Significance of Informing Produce Workers 15
Chapter 2: Methods 16
Developing the Infographics 16
Selecting sources of information 16
Selecting the Messages 17
Selecting a Software 17
Selecting Sizes and Fonts 17
Selecting Color Palettes 18
Selecting Text Colors 18
Spanish Translation 19
Readability 19
Obtaining Feedback 20
Incorporating Feedback 20
Chapter 3: Infographics 22
Messages and Categories 22
Workplace Infographics 24
Housing Infographics 27
Transportation Infographics 29
Guiding Document 30
Chapter 4: Discussion & Public Health Implications 32
Discussion 32
Infographics 32
Guiding Document 33
Overall Strengths and Limitations 34
Public Health Implications 35
Future Research 36
Takeaways 36
Bibliography 38
Appendix 1: English Infographics 48
Appendix 2: Spanish Infographics 70
Appendix 3: Guiding Document 92
About this Master's Thesis
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