Participatory research on workers' health

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Social Sciences
• Public Health

Background:

• Growing concern for worker health in Latin America over the past decade.
• Increased emphasis on active worker participation in improving working conditions and generating knowledge.
• Need for effective methodologies to assess labor processes, risks, and health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present an action-oriented participatory research methodology for evaluating worker health.
• To compare the effectiveness of a collective questionnaire with traditional individual questionnaires.
• To highlight the advantages of participatory methods in occupational health research.

Main Methods:

• Development and application of an action-oriented participatory research methodology.
• Utilizing a collective questionnaire to gather data on labor processes, risks, and health damage.
• Comparative analysis with an individual questionnaire in a steel factory setting.

Main Results:

• The participatory methodology yielded results comparable to traditional individual questionnaires.
• The collective questionnaire provided qualitative insights into the labor process and risk generation.
• Semi-quantitative data on health damage was obtained, alongside increased worker awareness and organization.

Conclusions:

• Participatory research methodologies offer significant advantages over traditional approaches in occupational health.
• These methods provide rich qualitative and semi-quantitative data while fostering worker empowerment.
• The methodology facilitates the promotion of health-oriented actions among workers.