| |
Each year an estimated 100 children and adolescents die of a
farm-related injury; another 100,000 children suffer a
nonfatal injury associated with agricultural production.
Despite the plethora of surveillance data to document these
injuries, few analytic studies have focused on agricultural
injuries in children; none in a southern state. Farming
operations with livestock, especially cattle, have been
identified from surveillance data as being associated with a
higher risk of injury for workers compared with other types
of farms. However, the work tasks, exposures, and potential
risk of injury to children on beef cattle farms remain
largely undocumented.
We propose a three-year
longitudinal cohort study of children living and working on
family-owned and operated farms in the state of Kentucky.
The primary intent of the study will be to fully
characterize the work tasks and exposures of these children—an
estimated 41 percent of whom live on beef cattle farms—and to
explore a diverse set of potential injury risk factors—
particularly developmental characteristics of the child,
parental influences, and farm management practices—for
children residing on these farms. Baseline data were
collected in 1994-95 on a cohort of children (N=999) living
on family farms from 60 counties across Kentucky as part of
the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Kentucky Farm Family Health and Hazard Surveillance Project,
a multi-mode effort to determine agricultural risk and
injuries among farm families in Kentucky.
Beginning in the summer of 2000,
children aged 5 to 18 years will be reinterviewed via
parental or guardian proxy, with repeated assessment every
six months of all injury events that require medical
attention or treatment or lead to a loss of time at work or
school. The cohort of 999 children will be stratified into
two agricultural commodity groups—those who live on farms
where the primary commodity is beef cattle and those on
other commodity farms (tobacco, grain). The study will
examine selected child characteristics (physical size, risk
perception, family role) and parental influences
(supervision, prohibitions on work tasks, and assessment of
the child’s ability) as risk factors for agricultural
injuries. In addition, detailed data collection efforts
regarding farm management practices, including cattle
handling procedures and characteristics of confinement
facilities, are planned for the beef cattle farms. The study
is intended to provide needed data for the formulation of
age and developmentally appropriate guidelines for children’s
work on beef cattle farms and ideas for engineering and
technologic improvements regarding cattle handling
procedures, the design of equipment (e.g., headgates) and
confinement facilities for these farms.
|
|
|
