Addressing health disparities in highly specialized minority populations: case study of Mexican Mennonite farmworkers

The Kansas Statewide Farmworker Health Program (KSFHP) has developed a unique set of culturally competent health interventions in response to the pressing public health needs of the state's underserved farmworker population. Key among these are its health education and translation efforts on behalf of the fast-growing Low German-speaking Mexican Mennonite farmworker population. Linguistic, religious, and cultural values have created unique and complex health disparities and barriers to care that can be broken down only through innovative approaches. KSFHP first conducted a health needs assessment survey of the farmworker population in 2003, which indicated prenatal care practices as a significant health disparity, especially among the Low German-speaking Mexican Mennonite population. In response, KSFHP successfully lobbied the state health department to implement a new standard of health behavior data collection that includes primary language data as a method of delineating population subgroups, making Kansas one of the first two states in the country to collect this information. KSFHP also developed culturally competent Low German-language recordings on health topics such as prenatal care in accordance with the information delivery needs of the Low German-speaking Mexican Mennonite farmworker population. Currently, a pilot program is in progress that offers additional outreach, health education, and interpretation, among other services. The work of the KSFHP has significant implications for further research into health disparities, specialized minority populations, and culturally competent data collection methods.