Older farmers and machinery exposure—cause for concern?

Voaklander, Don; Day, Lesley Margaret; Dosman, James A.; Hagel, Louise; Pickett, William

doi:10.1002/ajim.22111

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…Further, age‐related changes have also been suggested as contributing factors including declines in vision, balance, reaction time, strength, flexibility, memory and hearing 4,5 . Overall health status, in tandem with issues such as medication use, financial pressures and stress, has all been identified as contributing factors 6‐8 . This phenomenon is not isolated to Australia with several international studies from comparative agricultural production systems, illustrating that older farmers are at increased injury risk 5,9 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of severe on‐farm injuries to older and younger persons in New South Wales (2012‐2016)

Walker

Lower

Peachey

2021

Australian J Rural Health

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Objectives To assess and compare rates of severe on‐farm injury for older (> 50 years) and younger (15‐49 years) cohorts, on NSW farms. Design Descriptive retrospective epidemiological study of the New South Wales Trauma Registry (Institute of Trauma and Injury Management ‐ ITIM) for persons injured on a farm. Setting New South Wales, Australia. Participants Cases involving persons (≥15 years), with data on the NSW Trauma Registry (2012‐16). Main outcome measures Comparison of injury rates and severity between younger (15‐49 years) and older (50+ years) cohorts over the 2012‐16 period based on Injury Severity Scores (ISS). Results Older males are injured at a rate that is roughly 18% higher than younger males and 13% higher than the overall injury rate. Older individuals also have significantly longer hospital stays post‐injury (P = 0.01), with this being most pronounced for older men (P < 0.01). There was no statistically significant difference in ISS demonstrated between the age cohorts (P = 0.64), except for younger women having higher median ISS than their older female counterparts (P = 0.02). Conclusion Overall, the general trends displayed support the contention that older males are more likely to incur a severe on‐farm injury than their younger counterparts. This provides support for a preventative focus targeting older farmers in NSW.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of severe on‐farm injuries to older and younger persons in New South Wales (2012‐2016)

Walker

Lower

Peachey

2021

Australian J Rural Health

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“…However, there is also growing understanding regarding the impact that ageing has on health and safety for those older persons continuing to work in agriculture [8][9][10][11][12]. These impacts centre on normal physiological changes including reductions in strength, flexibility and balance, plus issues with sight, hearing, and memory among others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quads, Farmers 50+ Years of Age, and Safety in Australia

Lower

Monaghan

Rolfe

2016

Safety

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Abstract:Quads are the leading cause of fatal non-intentional injuries on Australian farms. Due to normal age-related physiological and cognitive changes, farmers 50-years of age and above are at increased risk when using quads. This study identifies a non-statistically significant increasing trend for fatal quad incidents involving this cohort in Australia. It is contended that these vehicles are not "fit-for-purpose" for many typical agricultural tasks more broadly and that the ageing process further exacerbates these risks. Encouraging and promoting the use of more "fit-for-purpose" vehicles in the agricultural sector should be the primary focus of intervention approaches. Supplementing this, other approaches that reduce risks, specifically relating to rollovers, crush/asphyxiation and head injuries must be enacted.

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“…Open cabbed tractors, although rare today, were the norm for older farmers, and therefore they were more exposed to pesticides and dust. 26 We see this in Model 1 where working on the farm in the participants' 40s clustered with driving of combines and diesel tractors as well as pesticides. There was a clear separation between all factors such that each variable loaded significantly on only one factor.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

A principal factor analysis to characterize agricultural exposures among Nebraska veterans

Weissenburger-Moser

Meza

et al. 2016

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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Agricultural workers are at an increased risk of developing chronic respiratory disorders. Accurate estimation of long-term agricultural exposures based on questionnaires has been used to improve the validity of epidemiologic investigations and subsequent evaluation of the association between agricultural exposures and chronic diseases. Our aim was to use principal factor analysis (PFA) to distill exposure data into essential variables characterizing long-term agricultural exposures. This is a cross-sectional study of veterans between the ages of 40 and 80 years and who worked on a farm for ≥2 years. Participant characteristics were: 98.1% were white males with a mean age 65±8 (SD) years and 39.8% had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The final model included four factors and explained 16.6% of the variance in the exposure data. Factor 1 was a heterogeneous factor; however, Factor 2 was exclusively composed of exposure to livestock such as hogs, dairy and poultry. Factor 3 included exposures from jobs on or off the farm such as wood dust, mineral dust, asbestos and spray paint. Crop exposure loaded exclusively in Factor 4 and included lifetime hours of exposure and maximum number of acres farmed in the participants' lifetime. The factors in the final model were interpretable and consistent with farming practices.

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Older farmers and machinery exposure—cause for concern?

Cited by 14 publications

References 26 publications

Comparison of severe on‐farm injuries to older and younger persons in New South Wales (2012‐2016)

Comparison of severe on‐farm injuries to older and younger persons in New South Wales (2012‐2016)

Quads, Farmers 50+ Years of Age, and Safety in Australia

A principal factor analysis to characterize agricultural exposures among Nebraska veterans

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