Assignment of work involving farm tractors to children on North American farms†

BACKGROUND: Children are at high risk for tractor-related injury. The North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT) provide recommendations for the assignment of tractor work. This analysis describes tractor-related jobs assigned to farm children and compares them to NAGCAT. METHODS: A descriptive analysis was conducted of baseline data collected by telephone interview during a randomized, controlled trial. RESULTS: The study population consisted of 1,138 children who worked on 498 North American farms. A total of 2,389 farm jobs were reported and 456 (19.1%) involved operation of farm tractors. Leading types of tractor jobs were identified. Modest, yet important, percentages of children were assigned tractor work before the minimum ages recommended by NAGCAT. CONCLUSIONS: Children on farms are involved in tractor work at a young age and some are involved in jobs that they are unlikely to have the developmental abilities to perform. NAGCAT is a new parental resource that can be applied to these work situations.