Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 7, 2025

Methodology for Establishing a Community-Wide Life Laboratory for Capturing Unobtrusive and Continuous Remote Activity and Health Data
Published on: July 27, 2018
Engaging Low-Wage Workers in Health and Well-Being Survey Research: Strategies From 5 Occupational Studies
Erika L Sabbath1, Meg Lovejoy1, Daniel K Schneider1
1Erika L. Sabbath is with the Boston College School of Social Work, Chestnut Hill, MA. Meg Lovejoy is with the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Daniel K. Schneider is with the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Yaminette Diaz-Linhart and Grace DeHorn are with the Institute for Work and Employment Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, Cambridge. Susan E. Peters is with the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
None:
Without perspectives of low-wage workers in studies of worker health and well-being, researchers cannot comprehensively assess occupational health and health equity impacts of workplace exposures and interventions. Researchers and practitioners have noted particular challenges in engaging low-wage workers in worksite-based health survey research, yet little scholarship has described strategies for improving their engagement and response rates. To fill this gap, we present case examples from 5 occupational studies conducted between 2020 and 2024 in industries including health care, food service, and fulfillment centers. For each case, we describe how we identified barriers to worker engagement in surveys, explain specific strategies we used to address those barriers, and assess the effectiveness of these actions. Then, summarizing across case examples, we offer practical recommendations to researchers surveying low-wage populations, highlighting that high-touch recruitment, building trust with workers and managers, and obtaining manager support to take surveys during work time (for worksite-based studies) are critical for obtaining reliable, representative data. Our work contributes to broader discussions on improving survey response rates in vulnerable worker populations and aims to support future researchers undertaking similar efforts. (Am J Public Health. 2025;115(2):201-208. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307875).
Related Concept Videos
Surveys
Stress Prevention and Stress Management Techniques VI
Motivation and Self-Determination
Motivation, the driving force behind behavior, plays a pivotal role at every stage of the change process. The research...
Longitudinal Research
Health Literacy
Levels of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention
In primary prevention, actions taken before disease onset prevent the disease from...
Documentation in Long-Term and Home Healthcare Setting
Long-Term Care Facilities

