# COVID-19 Pandemic among low-income Latino families in an agricultural community: Financial, occupational, and mental and physical health sequelae

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2020 · $161,528

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
We have been engaged in the CHAMACOS study (R01ES026994, PI-Eskenazi), a longitudinal cohort study of
more than 600 Latino primarily farmworker families (N=600 mother-child dyads, N=1200) in the agricultural
Salinas Valley California for 20+ years. The overaching aim of this study has been to investigate the health
sequelae of pesticide exposure over the lifecourse from in utero to adulthood. In this proposal, we aim to study
the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these families. Low-income families, and particularly farmworker
families, will likely be disproportionately infected by COVID-19 given cramped living quarters, their “essential”
work status, traveling to work in crowded farmworker buses, and close working conditions on packing lines. In
addition, substantial epidemiologic and toxicologic evidence suggests that pesticides, including
organophosphates (OPs), organochlorines (OCs), carbamates, pyrethroids, the herbicide glyphosate, and
ethylenebisdithiocarbamate (EBDC) fungicides can impact immunologic suppression and increase susceptibility
to infectious diseases and more severe disease. For these reasons, we estimate that between 20%-40% of the
CHAMACOS cohort will have been infected by January 2021. In addition, we hypothesize that the CHAMACOS
cohort will be more impacted by the pandemic given poverty, insecure employment, risk for food scarcity,
immigration status, and poor access to health services. For the 600 mother-child dyads, we have collected key
information prior to the pandemic on health, financial and food security, and other relevant variables that may
have been altered by the pandemic or increased risk of infection. The specific aims of this proposed supplement
are to collect data post-COVID-19 to assess change in health (weight gain, increase in blood pressure, increase
in anxiety or depression), food and housing security, access to medical care for COVID-19 or non-COVID-19
related conditions, fear of immigration authorities, barriers to protective behaviors during the pandemic (crowded
housing, no indoor running water, workplace policies), and SARS-CoV-2 infection by serology. We will assess
whether cumulative pesticide exposure increased risk for infection and disease. Pesticide exposure will be
determined in two ways: by using California’s unique Pesticide Use Reporting data linked to 20-year residential
history (the lifetime of the child) and using existing biomarkers of exposure (including prenatal and early life
exposure of the child). To our knowledge, there is no other study of a similar population given the hard-to-reach
nature of this cohort, the richness of the existing data, and our long-term relationship with the families and the
community. Thus, our proposal will give a rare window into a population at high-risk of contracting COVID-19
and our unique opportunity to understand how the pandemic affects low-income Latino families who are living
and working in a farmworker community is unsurpassed.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10176043
- **Project number:** 3R01ES026994-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** Brenda Eskenazi
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $161,528
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2016-09-30 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10176043

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10176043, COVID-19 Pandemic among low-income Latino families in an agricultural community: Financial, occupational, and mental and physical health sequelae (3R01ES026994-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10176043. Licensed CC0.

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