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Socioeconomic Status and Injury in a Cohort of Saskatchewan Farmers
Author(s) -
Pickett William,
Day Andrew G.,
Hagel Louise,
Sun Xiaoqun,
Day Lesley,
Marlenga Barbara,
Brison Robert J.,
Pahwa Punam,
Crowe Trever,
Voaklander Donald C.,
Dosman James
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the journal of rural health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.439
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1748-0361
pISSN - 0890-765X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-0361.2010.00344.x
Subject(s) - socioeconomic status , medicine , hazard ratio , cohort , cohort study , population , proportional hazards model , environmental health , demography , confidence interval , surgery , sociology
Purpose: To estimate the strength of relationships between socioeconomic status and injury in a large Canadian farm population. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 4,769 people from 2,043 farms in Saskatchewan, Canada. Participants reported socioeconomic exposures in 2007 and were followed for the occurrence of injury through 2009 (27 months). The relative hazards of time to first injury according to baseline socioeconomic status were estimated via Cox proportional hazards models. Findings: Risks for injury were not consistent with inverse socioeconomic gradients (adjusted HR 1.07; 95% CI: 0.76 to 1.51 for high vs low economic worry; adjusted HR 1.72; 95% CI: 1.23 to 2.42 for completed university education vs less than high school). Strong increases in the relative hazard for time to first injury were identified for longer work hours on the farm. Conclusions: Socioeconomic factors have been cited as important risk factors for injury on farms. However, our findings suggest that interventions aimed at the prevention of farm injury are better focused on operational factors that increase risk, rather than economic factors per se.