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Sustained Work Indicators of Older Farmers



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  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    Agriculture boasts the oldest average age worker of any occupation in the United States. The latest Census data reports the average age of the American farmer as 55.3 years and this is expected to increase until mid-century. Over one quarter of the two million plus U.S. farms are operated by persons over age 65. Nearly half of all farms list a second operator, most often in the same generation, thus the number of older farmers is even greater than previously thought. This six year study of farmers over age 50 describes the health and injury status, work and work organization, cultural values, and dimensions of work related decisions of 1,423 older farmers who reside in Kentucky and South Carolina. It includes data from two groups of farmers often missing: African-American farmers (n= 287) and women who reside in farm households (n = 698). Five waves of mailed and telephone survey data and three sets of focus groups were conducted. The survey response rate was 42.9%. The attrition rate across the entire 50 months of data collections was only 33%. Among the overall sample noteworthy findings include the cultural significance of attachment to the land, defining health as the ability to work, and personal satisfaction from performing farm work as defining characteristics of sustained farm work. Although literature supports the increased prevalence of depression among the general population of the elderly only 12% of the sample had CES-D scores indicative of depression. Self- defined health conditions mirror those of the general population, led by arthritis (53%), hypertension (51%), back problems (32%), hearing loss (26%), and vision deficits (24%). The number and severity of health conditions increased with age. The crude farm related injury rate of only five specific injuries (lacerations, burns, fractures, amputations, and sprains/strains) was 14.9 per 100 farmers for males and 4.4 for females, reflecting the increased risk for injury when older farmers do any farm work. The mean number of farm tasks reported at baseline was 9.5 (SD = 5.6), with 5.7 tasks by women, compared to 12 tasks for men. The number of tasks reported decreased as a function of age. The number of farm tasks reported by each age grouping increased over time, a finding that was not anticipated. Females reported significantly less farm work than males. The sample scored high is self-efficacy (particularly Black males), supported by the finding that 46% of the final sample was not likely at all to stop farming in the next 5 years, despite policy changes and health conditions. By the end of the study only 15% of the sample was dependent on farm income for more than half of their total income (28% at baseline). This decreased reliance on farm income is mirrored by family farm operations in the United States. However, like most American farmers, even these older farmers bolstered their incomes by off-farm work (43% of the sample). Triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data supported attachment to the farm, including the land itself and the work on the farm, as leading indicators of sustained farm work by aging farmers. Older farmers made use of technology although younger farmers (ages 50-59) were more likely to make capital investments to make farm work easier. Older farmers were more likely to allow others to take over farm tasks or to scale back the size of the farm operation. Findings from the study are being disseminated to the farm community, scientific audiences and others who interface with farmers. Work is in progress to design occupational counseling appropriate to age, gender, and race, as well as health and safety programs for aging farmers. [Description provided by NIOSH]
  • Subjects:
  • Keywords:
  • Series:
    Grant Final Reports
  • Publisher:
    National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
  • Document Type:
    Text
  • Funding:
    Grant
  • Genre:
    Final Grant Report
  • Place as Subject:
  • CIO:
    National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
  • Division:
    OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
  • Topic:
    Workplace Safety & Health
  • Location:
    North America
  • Pages in Document:
    1-136
  • NIOSHTIC Number:
    nn:20052940
  • NTIS Accession Number:
    PB2018-101665
  • 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-004157, 2008 Mar; :1-136
  • Contact Point Address:
    Deborah B. Reed, PhD, University of Kentucky College of Nursing, Lexington, KY 40536-0232
  • Email:
    dbreed01@email.uky.edu
  • Federal Fiscal Year:
    2008
  • Performing Organization:
    University of Kentucky
  • Peer Reviewed:
    False
  • Start Date:
    20010930
  • Source Full Name:
    National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
  • End Date:
    20070929
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:b07c91478abed694129d9d94122a760647a17dcd6a654e13c756a40bd23b379dac49b43864c68cc7dab4ced97538b7fb60709a53e87e55055bf162dda084439a
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 1.78 MB ]
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