WORKING CONDITIONS AND THE HEALTH OF WORKERS IN BANANA CULTIVATION IN RIBEIRA VALLEY

• Grant number: 18/18104-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2019
• End date: February 28, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health
• Principal Investigator: Maria Do Carmo Baracho de Alencar
• Grantee: Maria Do Carmo Baracho de Alencar
• Host Institution: Instituto de Saúde e Sociedade (ISS). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Baixada Santista. Santos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Liria Yuri Yamauchi

Abstract

Interventions ocured in the world of agricultural labor in recent years, which have generally led to precarious working conditions. Aim: To investigate aspects of workers' health and working conditions in banana plantations in Ribeira Valley-SP. Methods: The study will have four steps. (1) Banana-growing workers from neighborhoods linked to the Family Health Strategy-FHS, in Registro-SP and Vale do Ribeira-SP, will be selected, and a questionnaire will be applied to obtain sociodemographic, health and work data, as well as the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ), the Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20), and the Pulmonary Function Test with the Spirobank® portable device will be performed, and an analysis of the workers' buccal mucous cells will be performed along with questionnaires about the habits of smoking and alcoholism. The data will be statistically analyzed through the statistical system R Development Core Team®, in a descriptive way and with inferential analysis for levels of significance (pd0.05). (3) General and initial information on work processes in banana cultivation will be obtained, and later systematic observations of the work process on a property, combined with records of verbalizations of the workers in real working situation, will be obtained in order to understand the and the strategies used by them during the work activities for these analyzes will be based on the theoretical and methodological foundation of the Activity Ergonomics. (4) Individual interviews will be held with the workers, based on a pre-elaborated roadmap, in order to obtain information about the experiences and situations at work. The interviews will be transcribed for thematic contente analyses. Expected Results: It is expected to obtain information about health and working conditions in banana farming in Vale do Ribeira-SP, to promote improvements in work processes. (AU)