ABSTRACT Introduction Farmwork is a hazardous occupation that is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Data collection methods are needed to understand the hazards affecting farmworkers. The objective of this study is to share lessons learned regarding the feasibility and acceptability of using wearable technology to assess the role of heat exposure on health indicators among farmworkers in Eastern North Carolina. Methods All participants were Latino men farmworker adults (18+ years) working in Eastern North Carolina who wore a wearable health tracker for 90 days. The participants were asked to wear the device day and night to collect information on heart rate, blood oxygenation, skin temperature variation, breathing rate, sleep, and stress. Participants were recruited with a community partner across six counties in the region. Results Existing community relationships with farmworkers facilitated adoption of new technologies. The participants found the wearables acceptable and easy to use. Wearable feasibility was dependent on consistent broadband internet for data uploads; however, broadband availability was low (35.7%–71.1%) across counties. The vendor's infrastructure (i.e., device and app) limited who could be recruited for the study. Climate impacted the expected length of study participation as droughts and floods cut the growing and harvesting season short, which impacted data collection. Conclusions Testing and consideration of the structural strengths and constraints are needed for selection of data collection instruments. Research protocols need to be nimble to guarantee successful data collection for climate‐related research with minoritized workers such as farmworkers in the United States.
Wallace et al. (Mon,) studied this question.