Southeastern Geographer

abstract:

Reporting data back to study participants provides important environmental health literacy opportunities to mitigate dangerous temperature extremes. Our study centers an occupationally exposed population who are vulnerable to cold-related illness and injury and aims to understand the response to their personal biometeorological monitoring data in the cold season. Geo-referenced data were collected from wearable sensors that measured temperature and heart rate information from January 22 to February 9, 2018 at two separate study sites in North Carolina (n = 66). At the end of data collection, biomonitoring results were given to participants in the form of a report-back packet that displayed results in multiple formats, including maps and tables. A survey was conducted to assess potential behavioral modifications and preferences of health data formatting (n = 47). Our study found that 94 percent (n = 44) of workers thought that the report-back itself was personally useful, and 98 percent (n = 45) believed that the monitoring results well-represented one’s own cold exposure status. In addition, after receiving their individual results, workers expressed a greater willingness to change their behaviors at work to reduce their cold exposure. Results suggest that reporting biomonitoring studies to urban and rural occupationally exposed populations is an effective means to promote behavioral change to cold temperature vulnerability.