title: Risk factors for work related injury among male farmers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify risk factors for serious farm work related injury among men.
  
  
  METHODS
  A case-control study was conducted in Victoria, Australia. Eligible cases (n = 252) were males aged > or =16 years injured while working on a farm and scoring 2 or higher on the Abbreviated Injury Scale. Non-fatal injury cases were identified on presentation to hospital. Fatal cases (next of kin) were recruited via the Coroner's Office. Two age-matched controls per case were recruited by telephone. Data were collected with a structured telephone questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to compare risk factors between cases and controls, adjusting for design factors and average weekly hours worked.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most common external causes of injury were machinery (26%), falls (19%), transport (18%), animals (17%) and being struck by an object (11%). Increased injury risk was observed for being an employee/contractor (odds ratio 1.8, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.7), not having attended farm training courses (1.5, 95% CI 1.0 to 2.1), absence of roll-over protective structures on all/almost all tractors (2.5, 95% CI 1.7 to 3.8), absence of personal protective equipment for chemical use (4.7, 95% CI 1.6 to 13.9) and a low average annual farm income of AUD$5000 or less (2.7, 95% CI 1.3 to 5.6). Decreased injury risk was observed for several health related characteristics and some farm characteristics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We identified some risk factors possibly relevant to farm injury prevention programs. However, other factors were not associated with farm work injury suggesting these may not be as important as previously hypothesised.
authors.affiliation: Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. lesley.day@general.monash.edu.au
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Day
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Voaklander
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sim
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wolfe
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Langley
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dosman
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hagel
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ozanne-Smith
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000382:Agricultural Workers' Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D000383:Agriculture / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002423:Cause of Death; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014739:Victoria / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D055815:Young Adult