Agricultural work and chronic musculoskeletal pain among Latino farm workers: the MICASA Study

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Ind Med
• Personal Author:
  Xiao, Hong ; McCurdy, Stephen A. ; Stoecklin-Marois, Maria ; Li, Chin-Shang ; Schenker, Marc B
• Description:
  Background
  
  Agriculture poses varied dangers to hired farm workers in the U.S., but little information exists on occupational risks for chronic musculoskeletal pain. We examined common work positions, such as kneeling, carrying heavy loads, and repetitive motion that may increase the risk for chronic musculoskeletal pain.
  
  Methods
  
  MICASA is a population-based study of occupational exposures and health in hired farm workers in California. This analysis includes 759 participants, 18–55 years old, engaged in farm work and residing in Mendota, CA. Chronic pain was defined as pain lasting six weeks or longer at specific body sites (back, knee, hip, etc.) over the entire farm work career.
  
  Results
  
  Mean age was 37.9 years. 65% participants were born in Mexico, 27.7% were born in El Salvador, and 4.2% were U.S-born. Chronic pain was associated with older age and female sex. After adjustment for age, years working in agriculture, and smoking, stooping/bending >30hrs/week among both men (OR=2.49, 95%CI:1.03–5.99) and women (OR=2.15, 95%CI:1.04–4.46) was associated with chronic hip pain. Driving tractors or other heavy farm equipment >60 hrs/week was associated with increased odds of chronic hip pain (OR=2.16 95%CI: 1.02–4.54) among men. We also observed significant associations with kneeling or crawling >35 hrs/week among women for both chronic back pain (OR=2.96 95%CI: 1.27–6.93) and knee pain (OR=3.02 95%CI: 1.07–8.50), respectively.
  
  Conclusions
  
  Chronic musculoskeletal pain is prevalent among farm workers and is associated with common work positions. Further research should focus on developing preventive interventions for tasks associated with increased pain risk. These interventions should be targeted to specific types of agricultural tasks.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Adult Agricultural Workers' Diseases Chronic Pain Cross-Sectional Studies Female Hispanic Or Latino Humans Interviews As Topic Logistic Models Male Middle Aged Musculoskeletal Pain Posture Prevalence Prospective Studies Questionnaires Risk Factors Young Adult

  More +
• Source:
  Am J Ind Med. 56(2):216-225.
• Pubmed ID:
  23023585
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC3593628
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  2U50OH007550/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States ; M01 RR019975/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/United States ; P30 ES005707/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States ; R01OH009293/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  California ; El Salvador ; Mexico
• Volume:
  56
• Issue:
  2
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:350fd7f3a9e25bd5ec64ea3942eede1b7db82ab2cfe55a9aaa09d2e54ff9b260
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/33530/cdc_33530_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 146.82 KB ]