Consequences of Agriculture Injuries

Details

• Personal Author:
  Alexander BH ; Church, Timothy R. ; Dowd BE ; Goodwin Gerberich S ; Masten AS ; McGovern, Patricia M. ; Mongin, Steven J. ; Renier CM ; Ryan A
• Description:
  Importance: Agriculture is among the most hazardous industries in the United States (US). However, long-term health-related, psychosocial and economic consequences of agricultural injuries have not been adequately studied. Understanding the total injury problem and consequences in this occupation is essential to the development of prevention and control strategies. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to: 1) determine if injuries incurred by children on agricultural operations result in measurable physical, psychosocial, and economic burden to children, family members, and the overall agricultural operation; 2) determine if physical, psychosocial, and economic consequences of agricultural injury are compounded by burdens from non-agricultural injury and other health conditions. Methods: The study involved a cohort of agricultural operation households in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. A random sample of 6,400 operations was selected for each state (total n=32,000), from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service's (NASS), Master List Frame of Farming Operations. Interviews were administered using a computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) data collection instrument. Eligibility involved: 1) having an associated household that included at least one child <20 years of age as of January 1, 2007; 2) actively farming or ranching or had land in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP); and 3) produced or had annual sales of agricultural goods of at least $1,000 in the previous year, Baseline data were collected from eligible households, in early 2007. Telephone interviews enabled injury data collection for all household members for the two six-month periods in 2007; six-month follow up interviews enabled identification of longer-term consequences of injuries ascertained in injury interviews #1 and #2, respectively. Evaluation Interviews (n=4) were conducted one and two years after each injury interview; this involved families of all youth reporting eligible injuries and those with youth who did not report injuries. Controls were randomly sampled from all eligible controls in households with an injured child (ratio, 3:1). Data collection for Evaluation Interviews was comparable to Baseline Interviews, enabling identification of changes between baseline and long-term follow-up periods, comparing households with injured children to those with non-injured children. Analyses, pertinent to incidence, identified injury rates (e.g., per 1,000 operations, 1,000 persons, and 100,000 hours of work). Extensive descriptive analyses were conducted on short-term consequences of injury. Multivariate analyses enabled determination of potential long-term physical, psychosocial and economic consequences of injuries to children through comparisons of follow-up evaluations with baseline data on health status (physical and psychosocial) and economic status between households with injured and non-injured children. All multivariate models incorporated adjustments for within-household correlation. Potential selection bias was controlled by inversely weighting observed responses with probabilities of response among non-respondents, estimated as a function of characteristics available from the NASS database; probability of eligibility was estimated for these same characteristics. Results: A total of 3,489 operations met the eligibility criteria; 1,459 agricultural operations completed the baseline questionnaire; 6,205 persons were followed through the study. There were 578 injury events reported for the full 12-month injury reporting period; 259 events related to agricultural activities that occurred on one's own or someone else's agricultural operation and 318 were related to non-agricultural activities. The overall injury rate for agricultural operations was 121.5 injury events per 1,000 persons per year, two times higher for males (163.0) than females (79.6) and comparable between participants >/=20 (124.6) and those <20 years of age (118.6). Injuries incurred by children, versus adults, were treated more frequently at emergency departments. A total of 100 case households and 366 control households were selected for evaluation interviews. Children with severe injuries were more likely to require medical care at one and two years after the injury-reporting periods; long-term increases in health care costs from baseline were also associated with injured children. A long-term decrease in health-related quality of life, measured by the HUI-3, was associated with child injury. Case households with severely injured children were more likely to have household members who lost work time due to a child's injuries, illnesses or health conditions at both one and two years following the injury reporting periods. Conclusions: This study addressed a serious deficiency in knowledge about long-term consequences of agricultural injuries. Important changes in physical, emotional, and economic characteristics were identified for injured children and other household members. It is possible that some long-term changes in personal and household characteristics may not be directly related to the initial injury event reported during the first year of data collection. As shown in previous studies, prior experiences with injury are strongly associated with subsequent injury events, suggesting that there may be individuals at increased risk due to the environments in which they live and work. These results serve as a basis for development of prevention and control efforts to prevent long-term risk of injury and associated consequences. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Demography Family Farmers Mental Health Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Agricultural-industry Agricultural-workers Children Demographic-characteristics Families Injuries Psychology Sociology Statistical-analysis Traumatic-injuries
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  Minnesota ; Nebraska ; North Dakota ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 7 ; OSHA Region 8 ; South Dakota ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20047262
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2016-101852
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, R01-OH-008258, 2012 Sep; :1-492
• Contact Point Address:
  Susan Goodwin Gerberich, PhD, Midwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, MMC 807, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
• Email:
  gerbe001@umn.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• Performing Organization:
  University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20060701
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20120630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:dac917dacc29db2c8bac7cf2d504e2fad05f3c6d07b85d2ec4554faac9beb02cca838b4ca3196d534d4b69d43c6ad7f12368f702db5af4cd0f835f3feca2f549
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218617/cdc_218617_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.67 MB ]