Cell Phone Ownership and Cellular Text/Email Capabilities Among Temporary and Payroll Construction Workers
Background: With high rates of temporary workers and a transient worker population, the U.S. construction workforce presents a challenge for long term research and outreach activities. Increasing availability of affordable cell phone technologies may provide an opportunity for research follow up among construction workers once they leave the worksite. Using pilot study survey data we characterize and examine the association of cell phone technology ownership and cellular text/email services among a non probabilistic sample of payroll and temporary construction workers. Methods: A cross sectional study design was used to administer a one time paper based anonymous survey to construction workers working at construction sites in Florida, USA. The survey featured questions on sociodemographic characteristics, occupational history, cell phone technology ownership, and cellular text/email services capabilities. Results: Among the 223 construction worker survey respondents, 31.4% identified as temporary workers and 68.6% were on payroll and 87.4% owned a cell phone. Construction workers who own a cell phone had greater than a high school education (28.9% vs. 25.0% p 0.019) made $30,000/year (27.1% vs. 14.8% p 0.011) had same cell phone number for >1 year (74.4% vs. 40.7% p 0.001) and were employed as a payroll worker (71.0% vs. 50.0% p 0.037) Temporary construction workers compared to their payroll counterparts were significantly less likely to have email services on their cell phone [unadjusted odds ratio 0.41 (95% CI: 0.17 0.97) Conclusion: Cell phone ownership and smartphone enabled technologies such as email/texting capabilities are higher among payroll than temporary construction workers. Further research on frequency of cell phone use and types of email/texting services used by construction workers are needed.
Frontiers in Public Health