Comparisons of working conditions and health-related problems between older male and female crop farmers

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although the number of farmers in Korea is declining, the proportion of older farmers aged ≥60 increases. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to analyze gender differences in working conditions, exposure to risk factors, and health problems of older crop farmers aged ≥60. METHODS: This study used data from the 5th Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) data of 818 male and 985 female crop farmers aged ≥60 years. RESULTS: This study showed that older female farmers had higher ratios of living alone (45.0% vs. 13.4%, p < 0.001), lower education levels (80.7% vs. 53.4%, p < 0.001), and lower average incomes (1.565 vs. 2.036 million KRW, p < 0.001) than that of males. Among subjective scores on the exposure of risk factors, only females’ repetitive motion (4.923) and awkward posture (4.415) scores were higher than that of males’ repetitive motion (4.601) (p < 0.001) and awkward posture (4.159) scores (p = 0.001). However, female’s health problem rates on upper limb pain (68.3%), lower extremity pain (67.6%), backache (48.4%), overall fatigue (44.8%), and headache and eyestrain (25.0%) were higher than that of male’s complaint rates on upper limb pain (48.5%) (p < 0.001), lower extremity pain (53.3%) (p < 0.001), backache (35.0%) (p < 0.001), overall fatigue (39.5%) (p = 0.024), and headache and eyestrain (19.4%) (p = 0.005). The rate of depression symptoms in females (54.6%), with a high proportion of single-person households, was higher than that of males (46.9%) (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The musculoskeletal pains and depression symptoms of older female farmers are prevalent, and efforts and support are required to improve working conditions.

Effects of Occupational Hazards, Musculoskeletal Pain, and Work on the Overall Fatigue, Anxiety, and Depression of Female Nurses

“…In the case of vibration, nurses exposed to more than 4 h were 5.191 times more likely to complain of overall fatigue than nurses exposed to less than 2 h. This is in line with studies that show that workers exposed to vibration are prone to overall fatigue [43,44]. In the case of awkward posture, nurses exposed for more than 4 h showed 3.120 times compared to nurses exposed for less than 2 h. This aligns with studies showing that working in an awkward posture increases symptoms of overall fatigue [45,46]. Repetitive movements were 2.464 times higher in nurses exposed for 2-4 h than those exposed for less than 2 h. This finding is consistent with the results of a study that shows that overall fatigue increases with repetitive movements [47].…”

Predictors of injuries on duty among general workers from a chicken processing farm in Western Cape, South Africa

“…This study's discovered that there is no significant difference in the distribution of injuries on duty between males and females (P-value 0.912), even though there were more females than males who participated in the study. However, the findings by [14] indicate that female workers have a higher prevalence of injuries on duty, and the study further expands on this by clarifying that there are differences between men and women, such as body size and shape, muscle anatomy and function, metabolism of toxic compounds, hormones, and immunological responses, but the actual factors that predispose female workers to injuries on duty are still unclear [14].…”

Older Female Farmers and Modeling of Occupational Hazards, Wellbeing, and Sleep-Related Problems on Musculoskeletal Pains

“…Interventions should reduce risk factors by improving working conditions [ 2 , 43 ]. That is, strategies are needed to adapt working conditions to suit older workers with decreased physical abilities [ 47 , 48 ]. Ergonomic interventions support the agricultural workforce by examining how workers prevent excessive force, repetitive motions, and awkward postures by improving tools and workplaces [ 2 ].…”