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Funded Research: Faculty

Sustained Work Indicators of Older Farmers

Deborah Reed, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Mary Kay Rayens, Ph.D., Steve Browning, Ph.D., Jan McCulloch Ph.D., (University of Minnesota), and Lori Garkovich Ph.D., (Rural Sociology), Co-investigators

Funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
Grant #1 R01 OH07534-01
(2001-2006)

Abstract

This prospective panel study will focus on the most rapidly aging workforce in the U.S.: the family farmer. This special population is known to suffer one of the highest rates of occupational injury and mortality. Farmers rarely retire from their vocation and work long past usual retirement age. A longitudinal design to track the sustained work patterns of aging farmers and to identify factors that influence their decision to remain in farm work will be used. The specific aims of this study are to:

1. Identify factors that influence the sustained work of older farmers.
2. Develop health profiles (including physical and mental indicators) of older male and female farmers.
3. Develop exposure profiles for tasks related to agricultural work of older farmers.
4. Explore the sociocultural, family and economic factors that influence the work practices and health of older farmers.

The aims are congruent with the Healthy People 2010 objectives 20.1 and 20.2 to reduce farm worker fatalities and injuries. This study will enroll a partial sample from the Kentucky Farm Family Health and Hazard Surveillance Study (data collected 1994-1996) and their spouses (n=914) and an oversample of African American farmers and spouses (n=914), for a total of 1828 persons enrolled from Kentucky and South Carolina. Measures on sociocultural, health and behavioral, and work environment factors will be collected through six waves of mailed surveys over 50 months. Hierarchical regression analysis will provide a quantitative model of the sustained work of older farmers. Descriptive and predictive analyses will be conducted by gender and race. Focus groups of male farmers, farm women, and farm couples will address items not conducive to survey research. Attachment to farm life and the land, farm enterprise transfer, and the meaning of work will be explored in 18 focus group sessions. Findings from the study will be used to design occupational counseling appropriate to age, gender, and race, as well as health and safety programs for aging farmers.

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