Citation

Pickett W, Day AG, Hagel LM, Sun X, Day LM, Marlenga BL, Brison RJ, Pahwa P, Crowe T, Voaklander DC, Dosman J. J. Rural Health 2011; 27(3): 245-254.

Affiliation

Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada Department of Emergency Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada Clinical Research Centre, Kingston General Hospital, Kingston, Canada Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada Accident Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, Marshfield, Wisconsin Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada Department of Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, National Rural Health Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1748-0361.2010.00344.x

PMID

21729151

Abstract

Purpose: To estimate the strength of relationships between socioeconomic status and injury in a large Canadian farm population. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 4,769 people from 2,043 farms in Saskatchewan, Canada. Participants reported socioeconomic exposures in 2007 and were followed for the occurrence of injury through 2009 (27 months). The relative hazards of time to first injury according to baseline socioeconomic status were estimated via Cox proportional hazards models. Findings: Risks for injury were not consistent with inverse socioeconomic gradients (adjusted HR 1.07; 95% CI: 0.76 to 1.51 for high vs low economic worry; adjusted HR 1.72; 95% CI: 1.23 to 2.42 for completed university education vs less than high school). Strong increases in the relative hazard for time to first injury were identified for longer work hours on the farm. Conclusions: Socioeconomic factors have been cited as important risk factors for injury on farms. However, our findings suggest that interventions aimed at the prevention of farm injury are better focused on operational factors that increase risk, rather than economic factors per se.

Language: en