Citation

Young AE, Murphy GC. Aust. J. Rural Health 1998; 6(4): 175-180.

Affiliation

Faculty of Medicine, Monash University, Australia. amanda.young@latrobe.edu.au

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Association for Australian Rural Nurses; National Rural Health Alliance, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9919073

Abstract

This study of Victorian workers who sustained a spinal cord injury aimed to: (i) define the proportion of this population who were employed in an agricultural setting prior to sustaining their injury; (ii) explore the preinjury characteristics and postinjury vocational achievements of agricultural workers; and (iii) compare these with those of non-agricultural workers. Respondents were sampled from patients presenting for review at the participating spinal unit over the 9 months study period (N = 150 with a participation rate of 71%). Results indicated that while those working in agricultural occupations account for between 4 and 4.5% of Victorian workers, 13.3% of respondents reported working in agricultural occupations at the time of their injury. In spite of the physically demanding nature of their workplace many agricultural workers returned to farming postinjury. The rehabilitation experiences and return to work outcomes achieved by the agricultural workers were found to be very similar to those of other workers, despite the additional barriers they were expected to have encountered.

Language: en