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How Does Environmental Temperature Affect Farmworkers' Work Rates in the California Heat Illness Prevention Study?
Chelsea E Langer1, Tracey L Armitage, Stella Beckman
1From the Center for Health and the Environment, University of California, Davis, Davis, California (C.E.L., S.B.); Environmental Health Epidemiology Bureau, Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health, Santa Fe, New Mexico (C.E.L.); Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, Davis, California (T.L.A., D.C.M., M.B.S.); and Department of Pediatrics & Center for Healthcare Policy and Research, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, California (D.J.T.).
Objective:
Estimate the association between environmental temperature (wet bulb globe temperature [WBGT]) and work rate over the course of a workday.
Methods:
Repeated-measures regression was used to identify characteristics impacting work rate in a cross-sectional study of Latino farmworkers. Minute-by-minute work rate (measured by accelerometer) and WBGT were averaged over 15-minute intervals.
Results:
Work rate decreased by 4.34 (95% confidence interval [CI], -7.09 to -1.59) counts per minute per degree Celsius WBGT in the previous 15-minute interval. Cumulative quarter hours worked (2.13; 95% CI, 0.82 to 3.45), age (-3.64; 95% CI, -4.50 to -2.79), and dehydration at the end of workday (51.37; 95% CI, 19.24 to 83.50) were associated with counts per minute as were gender, pay type (piece rate vs hourly) and body mass index ≥25 kg/m 2 . The effects of pay type and body mass index were modified by gender.
Conclusion:
Increased temperature was associated with a decrease in work rate.
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