BackgroundPesticide use has increased over the years, with farmers experiencing health concerns from occupational exposure. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to identify and quantify the major contributing factors affecting pesticide-related health outcomes among farmers globally.ObjectiveThis review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize evidence on contributory factors to pesticide exposure and adverse health outcomes among farmers, quantify the pooled effect sizes, and determine the magnitude of the effects to guide intervention.MethodsWe conducted a systematic search of PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and IEEE Xplore. Meta-analyses were performed using random-effects models on 15 eligible studies. Effect sizes were calculated as odds ratios(OR) or hazard ratios(HR) with 95% confidence intervals.ResultsSeventy-one studies involving 22,362 participants in 28 countries were included. Five major contributing factors to health outcomes from exposure to pesticides were identified as PPE non-use, training deficit, unsafe pesticide handling, application, storage, and disposal, education and literacy, and policy and regulatory failures.ConclusionsThis review demonstrates that current voluntary approaches have failed. Policymakers must urgently implement mandatory PPE provision, enforceable training programs, and regulatory oversight to address the annual pesticide poisoning cases. These evidence-based interventions could prevent millions of preventable illnesses and represent low-cost, high-impact strategies for protecting agricultural populations globally.
Parasram et al. (Wed,) studied this question.