A new, collaborative study aimed at designing and evaluating worksite-based health programs to lower the risk of obesity and diabetes among immigrant Latino farmworkers has been launched under the leadership of the University of California, Davis.

The new five-year study, to be carried out through a partnership between UC Davis; Reiter Affiliated Companies, a large California berry grower; and the Health Initiative of the Americas at UC Berkeley; was recently funded with more than $3 million in grant funds from the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

“Latino farmworkers harvest much of our fruit and vegetables, yet they face obesity and diabetes rates much higher than the general population,” said lead investigator Marc Schenker, director of the UC Migration and Health Research Center and the Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety, and a distinguished professor in UC Davis’ Department of Public Health Sciences.

He noted that the prevalence of obesity and diabetes has rapidly increased during the past decade in the United States. Among Latinos, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is now an alarming 78 percent, markedly higher than in the general population. Furthermore, the prevalence of diabetes among Latinos in the U.S. is almost twice that of non-Latino whites.

“To address that problem, we have created and are evaluating an obesity and diabetes prevention program that can be delivered to workers in the field,” Schenker said.

The study will include food and nutrition educational programs at the participants’ on-farm worksites, as well as exercise activities such as Zumba classes. All programs are led by community health workers or “promotoras.”

The study focuses on ranches in Salinas and Watsonville, but the ultimate goal is to disseminate the intervention program to farms throughout the state and country.

The program is designed to improve health outcomes among the farmworkers participating in the study and to evaluate those outcomes, as well as the economic impact for the employer.

“We hope that the economic benefits -- which we anticipate will be demonstrated and quantified through this study -- will help convince other companies in the agricultural industry to adopt similar programs,” Schenker said.

He added that Reiter Affiliated Companies is a model industry partner for this study because it is already invested in the health of its workers.

Co-investigators on the study include Daniel Sumner, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Davis and director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center; Nancy Keim, an adjunct professor in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition; Heejung Bang, a professor of biostatistics at UC Davis; and Xochitl Castaneda, director of the Health Initiative of the Americas at UC Berkeley.