Participation counts: Needs and intervention options for occupational cancer prevention (focussing on employees with a migration background)

01/08/2023 to 31/07/2026

More than a quarter of the population in Germany has a migration background. There are indications of health-related differences between people with and without a migration background. For example, people with a migration background are assumed to have a comparatively high number of occupational diseases as well as higher incapacity to work and disability rates. At the same time, they are less likely to use and adequately implement preventive health services. This also applies to occupational exposure to carcinogens. Since many of these risk factors coincide in the construction and agricultural industries, we are using the example of these industries to investigate the needs and potential for intervention in the prevention and early detection of occupational cancers in people with a migration background. The study design is an ethnographic between-methods triangulation embedded in grounded theory methodology, with the following aims: (1) By means of heterogeneous data (e.g., participant observations, formal/informal interviews, focus groups, visual data), barriers and facilitating factors are collected from the perspective of relevant actors from within and outside the company in order to derive an initial model. (2) Based on these findings, a participatory approach will be used in workshops to develop solutions for improving access, utilization and implementation of prevention and early detection of occupational cancers, and to derive transfer potentials of the results for other sectors and other carcinogens. The findings provide a practice-oriented basis for the development of target group-specific interventions, especially with regard to the dimensions of occupational safety culture and work-related health literacy for the prevention of occupational cancers.