Chowdhury Arabinda N, Banerjee Sohini, Brahma Arabinda, Weiss M G
Institute of Psychiatry, Kolkata, India.
Food Nutr Bull. 2007 Jun;28(2 Suppl):S381-91. doi: 10.1177/15648265070282S218.
Deliberate self-poisoning by ingesting pesticides is a serious health problem among farmers, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Preventing these suicides is a priority for a public mental health agenda.
To examine the role of pesticide poisoning in suicide and nonfatal deliberate self-harm, and clarify awareness of risks, safe practices concerning storage and use of pesticides, and associated self-injury, both unintentional and intentional, within farmer households of the Sundarban region, India.
Retrospective record review of adult cases of deliberate self-poisoning at the Block Primary Health Centres of 13 Sundarban Blocks was performed to analyze the relative roles of various methods of self-harm and their lethality. Focus group discussions, questionnaires, and in-depth interviews were undertaken in a community study of farmer households to examine pesticide-related views and practices, with particular attention to storage, use, and health impact.
Pesticide poisoning was the most common method of deliberate self-harm in both men and women. Pesticide storage in most households was unsafe and knowledge was inadequate concerning adverse effects of pesticides on health, crops, and the environment.
An intersectoral approach linking the interests of public health, mental health, and agriculture is well suited to serve the collective interests of all three agendas better than each in isolation. Such an approach is needed to reduce morbidity and mortality from unintentional and intentional self-injury in low-income agricultural communities like those of the Sundarban region.
通过摄入农药进行蓄意自我中毒是农民群体中一个严重的健康问题，尤其是在低收入和中等收入国家。预防这些自杀行为是公共心理健康议程的一项优先事项。
研究农药中毒在自杀和非致命蓄意自我伤害中的作用，并阐明印度孙德尔本斯地区农户对农药中毒风险的认知、农药储存和使用的安全做法以及相关的无意和有意自我伤害情况。
对印度孙德尔本斯地区13个街区的初级卫生中心的成年蓄意自我中毒病例进行回顾性记录审查，以分析各种自我伤害方法的相对作用及其致死率。在一项针对农户的社区研究中，开展了焦点小组讨论、问卷调查和深入访谈，以调查与农药相关的观点和做法，特别关注储存、使用和健康影响。
农药中毒是男性和女性中最常见的蓄意自我伤害方式。大多数家庭的农药储存不安全，而且农户对农药对健康、作物和环境的不良影响了解不足。
将公共卫生、心理健康和农业利益联系起来的跨部门方法，比各自孤立行动更适合于更好地服务于这三个议程的集体利益。需要采取这样一种方法来降低像孙德尔本斯地区这样的低收入农业社区中无意和有意自我伤害造成的发病率和死亡率。
