Recommendations for Program Improvement - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 189

5.a: The AFF Program should incorporate broader social science expertise
into the research diffusion process. Knowledge translation, communication of
research findings, and interventions developed by the AFF Program require special
attention. There has been some success when the topic of health has been intro-
duced as a means of changing behaviors (Perry et al., 1999; Rydholm and Kirkhorn,
2005); however, serious gaps remain in health literacy, knowledge translation, and
communication with affected populations and the public at large. This is an es-
pecially difficult problem in production agriculture in light of the diversity in the
populations at risk. Professionals in disciplines such as cultural anthropology and
rhetoric would be consulted to assist AFF Program scientists and national program
staff to develop outreach materials; it is not realistic to expect working populations
to follow recent developments through websites and printed reports. The use of
traditional forms of communication needs to be re-evaluated by NIOSH staff,
inasmuch as an increasing number of workers are from other countries and may
not be literate in either English or Spanish. The utility of hazard-related pictures
or narrative stories where language barriers exist needs to be researched further for
use with AFF workers. Academe is especially well suited to explore such strategies
and communicate new findings.
5.b: The AFF Program should explore communication tools capable of
reaching the AFF workforce. The AFF workforce comprises a wide array of eth-
nic groups, many of whose people speak only their native language, not English.
Moreover, low literacy is common in the AFF workforce. Further complicating the
communication difficulty is the strong preference in many cultures for face-to-face
discourse. Thus, a communication problem can arise in conveying facts and ideas
from scientists who regularly rely on the Internet or other forms of modern com-
munication to populations that rely on more personal interactions. NIOSH should
endeavor to engage practitioners who have long experience in communication with
the AFF workforce. The objective would be to develop a more realistic method of
engaging in policy and regulatory discussion with these highly diverse groups.
As early as 1990, studies were being conducted on the best modes of com-
munication for farming populations (Thu et al., 1990). Farmers recognized the
hazardous nature of their work and reported a desire to have access to occupational
safety and health services and a willingness to pay for services (Thu et al., 1990).
They reported that they most commonly turn to farm magazines, Cooperative
Extension, medical centers, and veterinarians for information (Thu et al., 1990),
but these do not appear to be the modes of communication being used widely by
NIOSH staff. The AFF Program should ask its partners to publish summary reports
of relevant findings in suitable trade publications. For example, National Fisherman
and The Packer are widely respected sources of information among practitioners
in the fishing and fruit and vegetable industries, respectively. Newsletters directed