Associations Between Diabetes Knowledge, the Prevalence of Diet-Related Chronic Conditions, and Dietary Behavior Among Hispanic/Latino Farm Workers with Type 2 Diabetes in the Salinas Valley, California, USA.

Introduction: Studies on diabetes prevalence among U.S. farmworkers indicate prevalence ranging from 9.3% in California to 16.1% in Arizona, with 39.9% of the California cases previously undiagnosed. Hispanic/Latino farmworkers in California face unique barriers that place them at high risk for undiagnosed and poorly controlled Type 2 diabetes (T2D). Despite this, limited research has been conducted to assess their T2D knowledge.

Methods: This cross-sectional survey tests associations between diabetes knowledge, prevalence of concurrent chronic health conditions, and dietary behavior. Participants (n = 118) were recruited using unstructured and snowball sampling approaches.

Results: On average, diabetes knowledge among participants who use insulin was considered low with a score of 9.57/20 (48% correct) and 9.15/18 (51% correct) for participants who do not use insulin. It was found that health insurance status (p = 0.015) and general education level (p = 0.001) were predictors of diabetes knowledge. Hypertension was the most prevalent chronic health condition among study participants (n = 61) and no significant correlation was found between diabetes knowledge and prevalence of a chronic health condition or dietary behavior.

Conclusion: Findings suggest that insurance status and general education attainment may influence diabetes knowledge among Hispanic/Latino farmworkers.