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Author Notes:

Alberto J. Caban-Martinez, DO, PhD, MPH, Department of Public Health Sciences, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, 1120 N.W. 14th Street, Room #1035, Miami, Florida 33136, Phone: (305) 243-7565 | Fax: (305) 243-3651. email:acaban@med.miami.edu

AJCM, PLF, KMS, and NSS, conceived the study, participated in its design, coordination, performed statistical analyses, and co-drafted the manuscript. AJCM,PLF, KMS, LP, GR, NSS, MM, and EPT, collected field data, entered study data, assisted in data analysis, and interpretation of study results. AJCM, KMS, and PLF performed statistical analysis, interpreted study results and helped with the manuscript draft. All authors read, revised, and approved the final manuscript.

The authors would like to thank the Dominican Republic firefighters who took the time to participate in this research study.

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Subjects:

Research Funding:

This research work was supported by: Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (Principal Investigator: Caban-Martinez); and the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P30CA240139. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center nor the National Institutes of Health.

Keywords:

  • Adult
  • Dominican Republic
  • Female
  • Firefighters
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasms
  • Occupational Exposure
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Qualitative Research

Perceptions of Occupational Cancer Risk and Prevention among Dominican Republic Firefighters: A Qualitative Study

Tools:

Journal Title:

Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Volume:

Volume 64, Number 3

Publisher:

, Pages E131-E135

Type of Work:

Article | Post-print: After Peer Review

Abstract:

Objectives:Characterize occupational cancer risk perceptions and attitudes toward cancer prevention practices among firefighters in the Dominican Republic.Methods:Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted in June 2019 among firefighters from three fire departments. Themes were inductively created using a qualitative descriptive approach.Results:Thirty-seven firefighters were interviewed with a group mean age of 36.2 ± 10.3 years, of which 97.3% were male, and 37.1% worked at least 10 years. Six themes emerged: 1) availability of personal protective equipment (PPE); 2) toxic exposure during fire suppression; 3) work-related stress; 4) lack of workplace health promotion activities; 5) Dominican culture impacts medical checkups; and 6) expensive medical copays limits healthcare access.Conclusion:Dominican firefighters are willing to adopt cancer prevention practices, however organizational barriers (ie, PPE availability, cultural barriers, and health promotion practices) limit engagement.

Copyright information:

This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
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