Agricultural Accidents in Farm Workers

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study was to obtain information regarding to agricultural accidents in farm workers in the Kyungpook area. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was carried out for 528 workers from the 1st to 31st of March, 2007. Frequency, percentage, mean and chi-square test with the SPSS program were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The causes of agricultural accidents include falling(29.0%), overseeing(18.9%), traffic accident(17.4%), putting between machinery(11.7%), crashing(5.3%), fire(0.6%) in the order of frequency. Injuries from agricultural accidents include fracture(44.7%) cerebral bleeding(10.4%), amputation(7.0%), airway obstruction(2.3%), burn(1.9%), drug addiction(1.9%) in the order of frequency. The largest proportion of the subjects of hospital treatment were in their 50s and belonged to the group of high-level economic state. Agricultural machinery collision was the most frequent cause among the subjects of hospital treatment. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that carelessness can be a potential risk factor for agricultural accidents in farm workers. These findings may give useful information for developing agricultural accident prevention programs for farm workers.