[A survey on the agricultural profession-related injuries among 11 902 rural residents in Shandong province].

OBJECTIVE

To understand the prevalence and risk factors of agricultural activities related injuries among rural residents in Shandong province.

METHODS

A retrospective investigation was conducted among agricultural profession-related workers in 20 villages with multistage cluster sampling method in Shandong province. Four times face-to-face interview were conducted by trained interviewers, including 32 students and local medical personnel under constructed questionnaires. Accidental injuries occurred in the activities or in the agricultural profession-related jobs were recorded, from May 1(st)2009 to April 30(st) 2010. Data was input and analyzed by SPSS 13.0 statistical software.

RESULTS

A total of 837 cases reported at least 1 job-related injury out of the 11 902 people who had been surveyed in one year. The crude incidence rate was 7.03% and the standardized incidence rate was 7.36%, higher in males (9.01%) than in females (4.10%), χ² = 105.53, P = 0.000. Children and adolescents (≤ 14 aged) had the higher incidence rate (9.50%), χ² = 9.70, P = 0.008. People working in the area of commercial service related to agricultural products had the highest incidence rate (12.94%). In particular, those occupations that related to agricultural construction or materials appeared to have had higher incidence rates as 16.80% and 15.59% respectively, than other kinds of jobs (χ² = 167.30, P = 0.000). There were higher proportion of injuries occurred in the roads (28.79%), in the fields (28.08%)during labor work (38.00%) transportation (27.97%), respectively. The seasonality of agricultural injures mostly occurred between June and August, accounted for 47.43%. Major external causes related to injuries were instruments or tools (31.42%) being used, transportation (24.13%) and falls (20.19%). Wounds on limbs took the majority (56.39%). The accidental self-inflicted injury occupied 76.82%, while accidents to passive injuries occupied 11.47%, other kinds accounted for 11.71%. Most of the accidents caused mild or moderate damage, accounted for 60.22% and 30.34% respectively. 7 cases died of injuries, with the fatality rate as 0.84% and the mortality rate was 58.81 per one hundred thousand. 72 cases ended up in disability caused by injuries, with the morbidity rate as 6.05 per thousand. Answers to the major internal causes of injuries appeared to be: "did not know how to protect oneself" (29.87%) with females (45.41%) in particular, followed by"over fatigue" and "inappropriate treatment" which took the 2(nd) place in males. Major natural environmental factors of injuries would relate to "high air temperature and humidity but lower wind velocity" (14.93%), "unclear signs on the country road" (12.19%), "the sky was cloudy or dark" (10.87%), "slippery road caused by rain or snow" (10.51%), "kids were unintended" (10.27%) etc. Most of the wounded received treatment clinically (50.18%), with the percentile (P₅₀) of medical cost as 182.76 RMB (Yuan). The proportion of inpatient was 27.72% and with percentile of time as P(50) = 7.57 day and cost as P(50) = 2840.00 RMB Yuan. The wounded had a rest of P₅₀ = 5.9 days, with an indirect cost as P(50) = 233.16 RMB Yuan.

CONCLUSION

The results of this study indicated that the incidence of agricultural profession-related injuries was high, with serious harm. Behavioral intervention and awareness of injuries should be enhanced, together with the improvement of environmental condition.