SOURCE 2022

Yakima County is a rural county with an urban core located in central Washington State. With over 60% of its workforce dedicated to agriculture, food production, and other essential industries, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly compounded in Yakima County populations. According to the CDC, the risk of COVID-19 disease infection is much higher in agricultural farmworkers due to language barriers, inadequate healthcare access, lack of paid sick leave, cramped migrant housing and other sociodemographic issues. Accompanying factors such as low decision-making power, limited ability to social distance, and occupational limitations such as fear of job loss and non-compliance with immigration regulations have yet to be explored during the COVID-19 Delta variant (Delta) surge between September 2021 and November 2021. Self-efficacy refers to a person’s confidence in their capacity to execute an individual behavior necessary to achieve a desired health outcome. This study aims to examine the self-efficacy to perform key COVID-19 prevention behaviors among agricultural farmworkers during the Delta surge in Yakima County. We will examine self-efficacy for COVID-19 disease protocols such as staying home when sick, hand hygiene and use of masks or face coverings. Self-efficacy was measured using several survey items related to respondents' self-reported confidence to be able to do the target prevention behaviors. Chi-square tests of proportions will be used to detect differences between the agricultural worker group and non-agricultural worker groups to examine how occupational status plays a role in individuals' ability to execute behaviors that may protect them under increased occupational risk of exposure.