Non-Fatal Agricultural Injuries and Risk Factors Among Colorado Female Farmers

Non-fatal agricultural injuries and associated risk factors among female farmers in Colorado were assessed on 485 farms between 1993 and 1995. Risk factors assessed include age, number of years in farming, primary cash crop and annual cash value on farm, depressive symptoms, organophosphates use on farm, having children under 6 years of age, having children worked on farm. On those farms, there were 872 principal operators and spouses interviewed in 1993, 402 were female farmers. Three hundred fifty-nine of those 402 female farmers were re-interviewed in 1994 and 316 of the second year participants were followed up in 1995. A total of 49 (12.1%) of the female farmers reported agricultural work-related injuries between January 1992 and June 1995. Of these, 29 (59.2%) were injured one time, 14 (28.2%) were injured two times, 5 (10.2%) were injured three times, and 1 (2.04%) was injured four times. Injury rates per 200,000 working hours for animal handling, farmstead material handling, crop production, farm maintenance, transport of farm equipments or produce, and other activities were 8.3, 11.4, 5.0, 8.2, 5.4, and 14.5, respectively. Significantly associated with agricultural work-related injuries were depressive symptoms (odds ratio 4.91, 95% confidence interval 1.93, 12.53), more than 30 years experience in agricultural work (odds ratio 4.90, 95% confidence interval 2.06, 11.66), age between 30 and 39 (odds ratio 3.14, 95% confidence interval 1.10, 9.01).