Work

Piloting the use of mobile devices in community-driven research to assess occupational and environmental exposures from industrial hog operations in rural eastern North Carolina, USA

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: TPS 751: Farms, antibiotics, infections, Exhibition Hall, Ground floor, August 26, 2019, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Background/Aim: Industrial hog operation (IHO) workers and community residents want to know how airborne hog waste impacts their household environment and health. Such questions can be answered with state-of-the-art molecular source tracking technology measuring hog-specific fecal markers (e.g., Pig-2-Bac) and livestock-associated bacteria (e.g., scn-negative Staphylococcus aureus) in the air, on household surfaces, and in nasal swab samples linked with electronic survey questions. Our objective was to describe the feasibility, practicability, capacity-building potential, and data completeness and quality when using this technology in a community-driven research study. Methods: From November 2017 to April 2018, community organizers collected air, surface, and nasal swab samples, as well as questionnaires via tablet computer at IHO-employed and community-referent households located at varying distances from IHOs. Data were assessed for completeness and quality, defined as missingness, correct data type, and within an expected range. Results: Of the 49 households enrolled, only 38 (78%) were deemed eligible after data review. Among eligible households, 14,322 of 14,675 (97.6%) required electronic survey questions were complete and 14,307 of 14,322 (99.9%) were the correct data type and were within the expected range. Compared to prior work using the same questions but on paper surveys, completeness was improved for key covariates, including smoking (0% missing versus 24%), education (0% versus 4%), and sex (0% versus 2%). Nasal swabs and novel air samples were 100% complete while novel environmental swabs were 95% (431 of 455) complete. Conclusions: Community and academicians were able to design a pilot study to appropriately address local questions of differences in at-home exposure to airborne hog waste relative to distance from IHOs and build capacity for effective citizen science. While eligibility criteria were often unmet, necessitating electronic survey recoding and further staff training, data collected were complete and of high-quality.

Source: Environmental Epidemiology

DOI: 10.1097/01.ee9.0000606524.85417.fc