Fatal Farm Injuries to Canadian Children

Details

• Personal Author:
  Belton KL ; Berg R ; Drul C ; Pickett W ; Rudolphi JM ; Voaklander DC
• Description:
  Children on Canadian farms are at high risk for fatal injury. Ongoing surveillance of these deaths is required to affirm recurrent patterns of injury, and to determine whether historical approaches to prevention have resulted in declines in the occurrence of these traumatic events. We analyzed epidemiological patterns and trends in the occurrence of fatal pediatric farm injuries over 23 years. Records of deaths were obtained from the Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting system. To contrast more recent data with injury patterns described historically, cases were compared between two time periods. An intentional consensus process was used to finalize key patterns and their clinical or social importance. 374 fatal farm injuries to children in Canada were identified over the 23 years of study; 253 in period 1 and 121 in period 2. While machinery and non-machinery causes of death varied between the two study periods, mean annual rates of fatal injury (approximately 4 per 100,000 children) remained similar. Notably emergent types of injury in recent years included those caused by all-terrain vehicles, skid steer loaders, and drownings. Observed declines in the numbers of fatal farm injuries are most likely attributable to analogous declines in the number of registered farms in Canada. Our findings call into question the effectiveness of pediatric farm safety initiatives that primarily focus on education. Second, while CAIR fatality data are maintained, surveillance of hospitalized injuries has been disbanded and the fatality records require updating. Only by doing so will such surveillance findings provide comprehensive information to inform prevention. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Drowning Education Epidemiology Farmers Mortality Occupational Health Preventive Medicine Safety
• Keywords:
  Agricultural Author Keywords: Agriculture Canada Child Health Children Determinants Of Health Farming Fatalities Injuries Injury Occupational Health And Safety Pediatrics Preventive Measures Skid-steer Loaders Surveillance Traumatic Injuries

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• ISSN:
  0091-7435
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Illinois ; OSHA Region 5 ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  139
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20066826
• Citation:
  Prev Med 2020 Oct; 139:106233
• Contact Point Address:
  William Pickett, Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston K7L 3N6, Canada
• Email:
  will.pickett@queensu.ca
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2021
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20080930
• Source Full Name:
  Preventive Medicine
• End Date:
  20250929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7f6561f78035d382f910c78b9d197ad4e661ebf701e6c104d2693be0d3140f96254686b4344117fd37bad417a11bea973b538cf2d4b3f9936d6bce681055ad52
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/231170/cdc_231170_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 880.94 KB ]