Citation

Hawk C, Gay J, Donham KJ. J. Rural Health 1991; 7(2): 170-179.

Affiliation

College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52240.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, National Rural Health Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10116776

Abstract

Agriculture is now the most hazardous occupation in the United States and it is the only one in which children not only comprise a significant part of the work force, but also live and play at the work site. Annually, 23,500 pediatric agricultural injuries are reported, with nearly 300 fatalities (Rivara, 1985). The Rural Youth Disability Prevention Project was designed to use innovative, community-oriented methods to address the unique problems of child safety in agriculture. Toward this end, a survey instrument was designed to gather data both to assist in program development and to serve as a pretest for the subsequent evaluation. Analysis of these data indicated several issues to target for intervention efforts. One is lack of supervision--more than 40 percent of children who operate equipment do so unsupervised. Approximately 30 percent of children more than 3 years old play alone in work areas, and 80 percent of these children play near machinery in operation. Another issue is operation of farm machinery by very young children--respondents' children began operating equipment at an average age of 12 years. Coupling this with the finding that the parents believe their children are not capable of operating equipment until age 15 exemplifies the most important issue, the disparity between parents' levels of safety knowledge and safety behavior. Using the survey data to increase local involvement, efforts are being directed toward facilitating an ongoing, community-sponsored intervention program to empower farm families to effect their own solutions.

Language: en