A Systematic Review of Community Health Workers’ Role in Occupational Safety and Health Research

Abstract

We systematically reviewed the literature to describe how community health workers (CHWs) are involved in occupational health and safety research and to identify areas for future research and research practice strategies. We searched five electronic databases from July 2015 through July 2016. Inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) study took place in the United States, (2) published as a full peer-review manuscript in English, (3) conducted occupational health and safety research, and (4) CHWs were involved in the research. The majority of 17 included studies took place in the agriculture industry (76%). CHWs were often involved in study implementation/design and research participant contact. Rationale for CHW involvement in research was due to local connections/acceptance, existing knowledge/skills, communication ability, and access to participants. Barriers to CHW involvement in research included competing demands on CHWs, recruitment and training difficulties, problems about research rigor and issues with proper data collection. Involving CHWs in occupational health and safety research has potential for improving inclusion of diverse, vulnerable and geographically isolated populations. Further research is needed to assess the challenges and opportunities of involving CHWs in this research and to develop evidence-based training strategies to teach CHWs to be lay-health researchers.

Appendix

Search strategy example

Database searched

Search terms used

Web of Science

(“community health worker*” OR “community health outreach worker*” OR “community liaison*” OR “community outreach worker*” OR “community organizer*” OR “community health adviser*” OR “community health representative*” OR “community health advocate*” OR “community health agent*” OR “community health distributor*” OR “community health surveyor*” OR “community health assistant” OR “community health assistants” OR “peer educator*” OR “peer counselor*” OR “peer health educator*” OR “public health aide*” OR “lay health educator*” OR “lay health adviser*” OR “patient navigator*” OR “outreach worker*” OR “volunteer health worker*” OR “health educator*” OR “health ambassador*” OR “health advocate*” OR “health promoter” OR “health promoters” OR “enrollment specialist*” OR “workplace champion” OR champion OR promotora* OR promotores OR “promotoras de salud” OR “worker center” OR “worker leader” OR “worker leaders”) AND (interview* OR “quantitative research” OR “qualitative research” OR “empirical research” OR “mixed methods research” OR “program evaluation” OR evaluation OR assessment OR “focus group*” OR methodology OR “longitudinal stud*” OR “comparative stud*” OR “multicenter stud*” OR “observational stud*” OR “clinical trial*” OR “case stud*” OR “validation stud*” OR “prospective stud*” OR “retrospective stud*” OR intervention OR “community participatory research” OR “ethical research practice*” OR interview* OR “research integrity” OR survey* OR “data collection” OR recruitment OR “study recruitment” OR “research recruitment”) AND (“occupational safety” OR “occupational illness*” OR “occupational disease*” OR “occupational health” OR “occupational health and safety” OR “occupational injur*” OR “occupational hazard” OR “occupational hazards” OR “occupational health service*” OR “work* health” OR “work* safety” OR “work* disease*” OR “industrial health” OR “employ* safety” OR “employ* health” OR “industrial health” OR “industrial hygiene” OR “farm worker*” OR farmworker* OR farmer* OR construction worker* OR home health aide* OR home care aide*)

1. Other databases searched may use different terminology, depending on subject term structure