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RESULTS RESULTS OF THE 1993 SURVEY
Compared to farmers in the rest of the USA (1992 US Agricultural Census)
* May be influenced by a few, very large farms Characteristics of the Farms in the Study Farms were categorized by their primary commodity: field crops, fruit and nuts, livestock, nursery, vegetables, or "mixed" if they had two or more. Small size is based on an economic definition, the farm grew no more than 20 acres of fruit or nuts, 90 acres of field crops, 32.5 acres vegetables, or 20 acres of nursery products.
Use of Protective Measures in the Cohort ·Use of protective equipment had little to no association with the amount of time spent at each hazardous farm task. · Farmers were most likely to use protective measures to prevent pesticide exposure than to protect against sun, noise or dust. · 80% of farmers using pesticides used protective gear more than ½ the time. · Only 22% of farmers wore ear protection (ear plugs or muffs) more than ½ the time in noisy conditions. · 18% of farmers used some form of dust protection (scarf, dust mask, or cartridge respirator) more than ½ time when in dusty conditions. · 36% of farmers had roll-over bars installed on their primary tractor, · only 7.4% used a seat belt routinely on their tractor, · 16% had an enclosed tractor cab, · and 74% had shielded power take-off on their tractor.
Prevalence of Respiratory Symptoms in 1993 An independent association of persistent wheeze and chronic bronchitis was found with self-reported dust exposure among the farm operators. Controlling for smoking (current, former, and never), age, sex and physician-diagnosed asthma, a positive dose-response association with dust was observed for persistent wheeze. The mean (+/- SD) for the dust exposure question "During the past year, approximately what percent of the time that you spent farming did you spend working at a dusty job?" was 19.9% (24.2), and the median was 10% ( inter-quartile range 29). Respondents were grouped into
Farmers in the "high" dust category were nearly twice as likely to suffer persistent wheeze compared to the no dust exposure category. Additionally, living on the farm, being male, and self-reported physician - diagnosed asthma were also significantly associated with persistent wheeze. However the adjusted risk of persistent wheeze was far higher for current smokers than any other group, the adjusted prevalence odds ratio for persistent wheeze among current cigarette smokers (4.7 [95% CI 3.0, 7.2]) was approximately 2.5 times that of even the farmers who worked in the high dust exposure category( 1.9 [95% CI = 1.1, 3.3]) Chronic cough also showed an association with dust exposure , although it did not quite achieve statistical significance. There was no association of dust exposure and physician diagnosed asthma. 1998 The average farm size of the survey farm is 793 acres. This is two times larger than the average California farm of 374 acres (1997 California Farm Statistics). The farms in the survey make up 1.7% of the total number of farms in the state of California. The farm size based on the mean acreage was categorized into three sizes: small farm (0 to 187 acres), medium farms (188 to 146,000 acres) and large farms (greater than 146,000 acres).
As would be expected the primary commodities raised in the Central Coast, Mountains and North Coast are animals, whereas fruits, nuts and field crops are grown in the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.
Most farmers made between $50,000 to $100,000/year.
In 1998 approximately 17% (225) of farmers were no longer a primary operator, although they may still have worked on the farm. The reasons given for this change were:
Comparing their self-assessed health, those that were no longer farming were more likely to report worse health.
845 spouses of the primary operators were surveyed in 1998, 804 completed the interview, 94.6 % of which were female. Two thirds (66.7%) worked on the farm at least part-time (averaged 9.7 hours per week).
In 1998, 597 children were reported by the 1,349 farming operations in the study. To be included, the children had to be 18 years or younger, related to the respondent, and lived or worked on the farm. 17% of the farms had children living on them (96% of the children lived on the farm) and 71% of these work or 'help out' on the farm. We will be examining this data to see if preventative measures for children's safety should be targeted, as it is known that children living and working on farms have increased risks of injury and certain illnesses.
Health Changes In 1993, after adjusting for smoking, the time farmers worked in dusty jobs (often field work involving tractors) was associated with breathing problems, as persistent wheeze, chronic cough or bronchitis. In 1995 the breathing problems were studied in more detail and it was found that specific farming tasks involving exposure to hay or straw, operating tractors or mechanical harvesters were associated with persistent wheeze. Prevalence of both chronic cough and chronic bronchitis increased over the 5 year period (4.2% to 8.5% for cough and 4.5% to 9.4% for bronchitis). There were 80 incident cases of chronic cough (5.9% of the cohort, associated with time working in dusty jobs, smoking and growing grapes), and 94 cases of chronic bronchitis (7.0% of the cohort, associated with time spent farming, smoking, and time working dusty jobs). In 1998, 9.3% of the farmers had had at least one injury over the preceding year - sprains and strains were most common, followed by fractures and open wounds. Independent risk factors for occupational injury were having had a previous injury, medium or high physical exertion levels, workshop activity, working on a small field farm or with horses. Farmers were asked if their activities were limited by any health factor.
Their functional status was assessed in association with their respiratory health. 55.8% had no functional limitation, and allowing for other factors as age, gender, smoking status, body mass index, alcohol consumption and any respiratory symptom, it was found that shortness of breath and persistent wheeze were significant independent predictors of declining functional ability. 2002/2003 PRELIMINARY RESULTS · In 2002/3 the average age of the 62 farmers was 66.9 years (sd=11.2). Preliminary analyses revealed that only 9 out of 62 farmers had abnormalities of interstitial lung tissue. This is good news because scarring of lung tissue is irreversible and if extensive enough will lead to severe breathing problems. As so, few interstitial changes were found, the analyses will concentrate on the effect of agricultural dust exposure on airway diseases as asthma and chronic obstructional pulmonary diseases. 2004
The average acreage of farm land for participants in 2004 was 808. This is over two times larger than the average California farm of 330 acres (1997 California Farm Statistics). The farms in the survey make up 1.7% of the total number of number of farms in the state of California. In 2006 approximately 26% of (231) of farmers were no longer a primary operator, although they may still have worked on the farm. The reasons given for this change were:
The primary commodities in the Central Coast, Mountains and North Coast are livestock, fruits, nuts, and grapes.
*Designates by price After 1993, the amount of ex-smokers increased as the amount of smokers decreased.
* Definition of Never smoked changed after 1993 HEALTH CHANGES An increase in the prevalence of chronic cough (+4.5%), chronic bronchitis (+5.2%), persistent wheeze (+2.5%), and physician diagnosed asthma (+3.5%) levels between the 1998 study and the 2004 study was found.
*Incident means new disease, never suffered before. The most common conditions reported by farmers in 2004 was a history of skin caner (19.7%) followed by diabetes (12.2%) and any other cancer (12.0%). This is an increase since 1998 when 17.3% reported ever having skin cancer and 7.6% reported having other types of cancer. Within the six years between the 1998 study and the 2004 study the amount of health problems that limit work-related activities has increased, as the average age of farmers has increased.
In comparison with the general population of the USA, California farmers suffer less diabetes and heat disease but have more problems with musculoskeletal disorders, injury, and respiratory symptoms.
1 Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans, 2005:pp10 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hur05.pdf Planned Analyses We will continue the work to see if there are associations between specific tasks or ranges of similar tasks that farmers do and any of these health problems With this specific information, we hope to make suggestion to reduce risks of illness in our Californian farmers. Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety This page was updated 14 February 2006, 3:40 PM. Reproduction of material on this web site is hereby granted solely for personal use. No other use of this material is authorized without prior written approval of UC Regents. Copyright © 2008 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. |
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