Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Health by mail: mail order medication practices of Latinx dairy worker households on the northern US border

  • Symposium/Special Issue
  • Published:
Agriculture and Human Values Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Latinx migrant farmworkers face numerous barriers in accessing health care which are linked in part to self-medication practices using health products manufactured and sold abroad. This study explores the use of mail-ordered medication among the understudied population of Latinx migrant dairy workers in Vermont, a northeastern international border state. Thirty-four Latinx migrant dairy workers or their domestic partners were interviewed. Data analysis found that myriad health access barriers compounded by increased fear of law enforcement as a result of international border proximity results in unequal knowledge about and local access to desired health care products and services. This unequal access experienced by those living closest to the border in addition to a familiarity and trust in Latin American pharmaceutical drugs, and varied experiences accessing health care services, are significant factors influencing the decision to request health products by mail.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In this article participants are referred to as migrant workers according to the definition of migrant used by the International Organization for Migration. All participants described being in the US on a temporary basis, identified their home to be within their country of origin, and moved between farms during their time in the US. https://www.iom.int/key-migration-terms.

  2. All names used in the article are pseudonyms in accordance with IRB requirements.

References

  • Arcury, Thomas A., and Sara A. Quandt. 2007. Delivery of health services to migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Annual Review of Public Health 28: 345–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arcury, Thomas A., Quirina M. Vallejos, Steven R. Feldman, and Sara A. Quandt. 2006. Treating skin disease: self-management behaviors of Latino/a farm workers. Journal of Agromedicine 11 (2): 27–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, Daniel, and David Chappelle. 2012. Health status and needs of migrant farm workers in Vermont. Journal of Agromedicine 17 (3): 277–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casner, Paul R., and Luis G. Guerra. 1992. Purchasing prescription medication in Mexico without a prescription. The experience at the border. West Journal of Medicine 156: 512–516.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chappelle, David, and Daniel Baker. 2010. Migrant worker health needs assessment: Central and Northeastern Vermont. Prepared for Bi-State Primary Care Association. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont.

  • Coffman, Maren J., Marcia A. Shobe, and Beth O’Connell. 2008. Self-prescription practices in recent Latino immigrants. Public Health Nursing 25 (3): 203–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Derose, Kathryn, José J. Escarce, and Nicole Lurie. 2007. Immigrants and health care: Sources of vulnerability. Health Affairs 26 (5): 1258–1268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, Steven R., Quirina M. Vallejos, Sara A. Quandt, Alan B. Fleischer, Mark R. Schulz, Amit Verma, and Thomas A. Arcury. 2009. Health care utilization among migrant Latino farmworkers: The case of skin disease. Journal of Rural Health 25 (1): 98–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harari, Nurit, Matthew Davis, and Michele Heisler. 2008. Strangers in a strange land: Health care experiences for recent Latino immigrants in Midwest communities. Journal of Health Care for the Poor Underserved 19 (4): 1350–1367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, Jill, Sarah Lloyd, and Trish O’Kane. 2009. Immigrant dairy workers in rural Wisconsin communities briefing 4. University of Wisconsin, Cooperative Extension. http://www.pats.wisc.edu/pubs/102. Retrieved 20 Mar 2014.

  • Heyman, Josiah, Guillermina G. Nuñez, and Victor Talavera. 2009. Healthcare access and barriers for unauthorized immigrants in El Paso County, Texas. Family and Community Health 32 (1): 4–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoerster, Kathereine D., Sandr Beddawi, K. Michael Peddecord, and Guadalupe X. Ayala. 2010. Healthcare use among California farmworkers: Predisposing and enabling factors. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 12 (4): 506–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoerster, Katherine D., Joni A. Mayer, Susan Gabbard, Richard G. Kronick, Scott C. Roesch, Vanessa L. Malcame, and Marua L. Zuniga. 2011. Impact of individual, environmental, and policy-level factors on health care utilization among us farmworkers. American Journal of Public Health 101 (4): 684–692.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, Seth. 2013. Fresh fruit, broken bodies: Migrant farmworkers in the United States. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Homedes, Nuria, and Antonio Ugalde. 2012. Mexican pharmacies and antibiotic consumption at the US–Mexico border. Southern Med Review 5 (2): 9–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horton, Sarah, and Analasia Stewart. 2012. Reasons for self-medication and perceptions of risk among Mexican migrant farm workers. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 14: 664–672.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kandel, William. 2008. A profile of hired farmworkers: A 2008 update. Washington, DC: USDA, Economic Research Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kandel, William, and John Cromartie. 2004. New patterns of Hispanic settlement in rural America. Washington, DC: USDA, Economic Research Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller, Julie C., Margaret Gray, and Jill L. Harrison. 2017. Milking workers, breaking bodies: Health inequality in the dairy industry. New Labor Forum 2017 (26): 36–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larson, Elaine, and Lorena Grullon-Figueroa. 2004. Availability of antibiotics in New York City without prescription. Journal of Urban Health 81 (3): 498–504.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levin, Lowell S., and Ellen Idler. 1983. Self-care in health. Annual Review of Public Health 4: 181–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lichter, Daniel T., and Kenneth M. Johnson. 2009. Immigrant gateways and Hispanic migration to new destinations. International Migration Review 43: 496–518.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mainous III, Arch G., Vanessa A. Diaz, and Mark Carnemolla. 2009. A community intervention to decrease antibiotics used for self-medication among Latino adults. Annals of Family Medicine 7 (6): 520–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maloney, Thomas, Libby Eiholzer, and Brooke Ryan. 2016. Survey of Hispanic dairy workers in New York State. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mares, Teresa. 2019. Life on the other border: Farmworkers and food justice in Vermont. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McVea, Kristine L. 1997. Lay injection practices among migrant farm workers in the age of AIDS: Evolution of a biomedical folk practice. Social Science and Medicine 45 (1): 91–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mora, Dana C., Thomas A. Arcury, and Sara A. Quandt. 2016. Good job, bad job: Occupational perceptions among Latino poultry workers. American Journal of Industrial Medicine 59: 877–886.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pylypa, Jen. 2001. Self-medication practices in two California Mexican communities. Journal of Immigrant Health 3 (2): 59–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radel, Claudia, Birgit Schmook, and Susannah McClandless. 2010. Environment, transnational labor migration, and gender: Case studies from Southern Yucatan, Mexico and Vermont, USA. Population and Environment 32 (2–3): 177–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosson, Parr, Flynn Adcock, Dwi Susanto, and David Anderson. 2009. The economic impacts of immigration on U.S. dairy farms. National Milk Producers Federation. http://www.nmpf.org/files/file/NMPF%20Immigration%20Survey%20Web.pdf. Retrieved 30 July 2016.

  • Ruiz, Maria E. 2010. Risks of self-medication practices. Current Drug Safety 5 (4): 315–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russell, Mindi, Maria Correa, Christine E. Stauber, and Julie Case. 2010. North Carolina Hispanic farmworkers and intestinal parasitism: A pilot study of prevalence and health-related practices, and potential means of foodborne transmission. Journal of Food Protection 73 (5): 985–998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez, Jesus. 2014. Self-medication practices among a sample of Latino migrant workers in South Florida. Frontiers in Public Health 2: 108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shea, Erin. 2009. Are apples more important than milk? Migrant labor turnover among dairy farm workers: insights from the Vermont Migrant Education Program. M.Ed Action Research, Leadership and Policy Thesis, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT.

  • Sleath, Betsy, Susan J. Blalock, Deborah E. Bender, Michael Murray, Ana Cerna, and Mauricio G. Cohen. 2009a. Latino patients’ preferences for medication information and pharmacy services. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association 49 (5): 632–636.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sleath, Betsy, Susan J. Blalock, Deborah.E. Bender, Michael Murray, Ana Cerna, and Mauricio G. Cohen. 2009b. Latinos’ sources of medication and medication information in the United States and their home countries. Patient and Education Counseling 75: 279–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Census Bureau. 2012. State and county quick facts: Vermont. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/50000.html. Accessed June 2018.

  • Ward Louise, S., and A. Serdar Atav. 2004. Migrant farmworkers. In Critical issues in rural health, ed. N. Glasgow, L. Wright Morton, and N.E. Johnson, 169–182. Ames, IA: Blackwell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization. 1998. The role of pharmacist in self-care and self-medication. In Report of the 4thWHO Consultative Group on the Role of the Pharmacist. WHO/DAP/98.13.

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station with funding from the Hatch Act (Accession Number 230745) through the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Vermont Extension, 278 South Main Street, St. Albans, VT, 05478, USA

    Naomi Wolcott-MacCausland

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Vermont, 509 Williams Hall, 72 University Place, Burlington, VT, 05405, USA

    Teresa Mares

  3. Department of Community Development & Applied Economics, University of Vermont, 205E Morrill Hall, 146 University Place, Burlington, VT, 05405, USA

    Daniel Baker

Authors
  1. Naomi Wolcott-MacCausland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Teresa Mares
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Daniel Baker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Naomi Wolcott-MacCausland.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wolcott-MacCausland, N., Mares, T. & Baker, D. Health by mail: mail order medication practices of Latinx dairy worker households on the northern US border. Agric Hum Values 37, 225–236 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-019-09962-x

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-019-09962-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation