Alberta Centre for Injury Control & Research, School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Am J Ind Med. 2009 Nov;52(11):876-89. doi: 10.1002/ajim.20749.
Agricultural work in the United States and Canada continues to be one of the most dangerous vocations. Surveillance evidence suggests that older farmers (>60 years of age) are at greater risk of serious injury than their younger counterparts. The purpose of this article was to outline illnesses and medications that may contribute to older farmers' increased risk of agricultural injury and to determine a minimum set of health-related covariates that could be used in farm injury studies.
A review of English language literature in Medline, CINAHL, and NIOSH databases was conducted examining disease and medication factors related to farm injury.
Health- and disease-related factors most commonly reported as significantly contributing to agricultural injury included previous injury, hearing problems, depression, arthritis, and sleep deprivation. The use of "any medication" was identified as a significant risk factor for injury in a number of studies. The use of sleep medication was significantly related to injury in two studies.
Based on the findings, it is recommended that at a minimum, researchers collect information on the prevalence of previous injury, hearing problems, depression, arthritis/muscular-skeletal problems and sleep disturbance as these have been identified as significant risk factors in a number of studies. In addition, where subjects that identify any of these afflictions, further information should be sought on any medications used in their treatment which can add data on disease severity. More research and surveillance activities need to be focused on the older farm worker. This population is critical to the maintenance of the agricultural base in North America and health and safety research initiatives need to address this. By integrating research from the fields of gerontology, occupational health and safety, and injury prevention, innovative interventions could be constructed to assist the aging farmer in the continuation of safe farming.
在美国和加拿大，农业工作仍然是最危险的职业之一。监测证据表明，老年农民（>60 岁）比年轻农民遭受严重伤害的风险更大。本文旨在概述可能导致老年农民农业伤害风险增加的疾病和药物，并确定可用于农业伤害研究的一组最小的与健康相关的协变量。
对 Medline、CINAHL 和 NIOSH 数据库中的英文文献进行了回顾，研究了与农业伤害相关的疾病和药物因素。
与健康和疾病相关的因素最常被报道为导致农业伤害的重要因素，包括既往伤害、听力问题、抑郁、关节炎和睡眠不足。在许多研究中，使用“任何药物”被确定为伤害的一个重要危险因素。有两项研究表明，使用睡眠药物与伤害显著相关。
根据研究结果，建议研究人员至少收集既往伤害、听力问题、抑郁、关节炎/肌肉骨骼问题和睡眠障碍的流行情况信息，因为这些因素在多项研究中被确定为重要的危险因素。此外，如果研究对象存在这些疾病之一，应进一步了解用于治疗这些疾病的任何药物，以增加疾病严重程度的数据。需要更多的研究和监测活动集中在老年农场工人身上。这一人群对北美农业基础的维持至关重要，健康和安全研究倡议需要解决这一问题。通过整合老年学、职业健康和安全以及伤害预防领域的研究，可以构建创新的干预措施，帮助老年农民继续安全地从事农业。
