Barriers to the adoption of ergonomic innovations to control musculoskeletal disorders and improve performance.

Despite a growing number of published articles describing studies of ergonomic interventions, little is known about the barriers potential adopters face when deciding whether or not to adopt such innovations. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers identified by potential adopters of ergonomic innovations and compare barriers identified by individuals not interested in adopting to those identified by individuals planning to adopt. Eight hundred forty-eight fresh market vegetable farmers were mailed surveys measuring the adoption of and barriers to the adoption of several ergonomic innovations as part of a multi-year intervention study. Barriers such as cost, lack of information, never having seen the innovation used and not being able to try out the innovation were among the barriers identified. The barriers identified were moderated by whether or not the respondents were likely to adopt. Implications for diffusing ergonomic and safety innovations are discussed.

Nursing home staff perception of a falls management intervention.

BACKGROUND: Many nursing home fall injuries are believed to be preventable. Little is known about the fall prevention activities nursing homes are using. METHODS: We conducted a census of all nursing homes in 6 Wisconsin counties by mailing a needs assessment to administrators and directors of nursing. Later we mailed a report of the results, an information intervention (an annotated list of falls management resources), and a follow-up questionnaire. RESULTS: Respondents believed that the most important barriers to better falls management in typical Wisconsin nursing homes were the fall-prone character of the population (80%), followed by the need for staff to communicate changes in a resident's condition better and more quickly (58%). Most felt that the components they needed to improve in their own nursing home were training for new staff (71%) and communicating any immediate care plan changes (65%). Respondents reported getting useful fall prevention information in the last year from in-house physical and occupational therapists (87%) and conferences, workshops, or meetings (82%). They were most interested in receiving new information about how to train their staff to analyze resident fall data and develop prevention plans (76%) and where to find training videos (68%). Forty-four percent reported becoming personally more aware of falls management resources and 31% reported that their nursing home had adopted changes in falls management activities in the last 7 months at least in part as a result of our intervention. CONCLUSION: Information dissemination interventions can increase awareness and changes in nursing home falls management activities.

A 4-year intervention to increase adoption of safer dairy farming work practices.

BACKGROUND: Traumatic and musculoskeletal injury rates have been high in dairy farming compared to other industries. Previous work has shown that social marketing efforts can persuade farm managers to adopt practices that reduce injury hazards compared to traditional practices if the new practices maintain profits. METHODS: The intervention disseminated information to 4,300 Northeast Wisconsin dairy farm managers about three safer and more profitable production practices (barn lights, silage bags, and calf feed mixing sites) using information channels that these managers were known to rely on. We evaluated rolling, independent, community-based samples, at baseline and then again after each of four intervention years. We also evaluated samples from Maryland's 1,200 dairy farms after the second through the fourth year of the intervention. Maryland dairy managers read many of the same nationally distributed print mass media that we used in the intervention and so were a "partially exposed" comparison group. RESULTS: The intervention to disseminate information about the innovations was successful. In comparisons before and after the intervention, Wisconsin managers reported getting more information about calf sites from public events and equipment dealers, about silage bags from other farmers and equipment dealers, and about barn lights from public events, other farmers, equipment dealers, consultants, and electrical suppliers. Wisconsin managers also reported getting more information than Maryland managers from public events for barn lights and silage bags. During years three and four, the intervention managed to sustain, but not improve, earlier increases in adoption and awareness from the first 2 years. After adjusting for farm manager and operation variables, intervention years was associated with increased Wisconsin manager adoption of two of three practices in comparisons between the baseline and the fourth intervention year: barn lights (odds ratio = 5.58, 95% confidence interval = 3.39-9.17) and silage bags (OR = 2.94, CI = 1.84-4.70). There were similar results for awareness of barn lights and the calf feeding sites. Compared to Maryland managers, Wisconsin managers reported greater awareness of barn lights. CONCLUSIONS: Disseminating information to managers through information channels that they usually consulted was associated with increased reports of getting information and with greater adoption and awareness of safer, profit-enhancing work practices in a high hazard industry.

Evaluation of a 3year intervention to increase adoption of safer nursery crop production practices.

BACKGROUND: We conducted a 3year intervention to increase awareness and adoption of eight more profitable nursery crop production practices that reduced certain traumatic and musculoskeletal injury hazards. METHODS: We disseminated information to nursery managers across seven states using information channels they were known to rely on (e.g. trade publications, public events, university Extension, other managers). We evaluated rolling, independent, probability samples (n=1200) with mail questionnaires before the intervention and after each of 3 intervention years. We also evaluated samples (n=250) from a comparison group of New Zealand nursery managers. RESULTS: The intervention was associated with increased awareness of four of the eight practices among US managers after year 3 compared to their baseline: zippers (20 vs. 32%, p

The use and value of information systems as evaluated by dairy and specialty crop farm managers.

Little recent research is available about where specific types of farm managers search for information about better production practices. The objective of this study was to investigate what information sources managers used and how they rated the usefulness of each source. The authors administered mail questionnaires to probability samples from sampling frames they developed for four groups: dairy and fresh market vegetable producers from Wisconsin and berry and nursery producers from a multistate region. Questionnaire items asked operation managers to check off, from a list of information sources, those that they used in the last year to learn about new equipment or procedures to improve their operations and then to rate the usefulness of each source. In the last year, nursery, dairy, and berry managers most often used information from print media (63% to 84%), followed by other farmers (50% to 80%). Fresh market vegetable growers used conferences (60%) most often, followed by print media (41%). The information source rated most useful was "other farmers" for the nursery, dairy, and fresh market vegetable managers. Nursery and fresh market vegetable managers rated conferences as second most useful, whereas dairy managers rated print media second. Berry managers were not asked about usefulness. Farm manager information behavior exhibits some common features but is also specific to their operation type. Research and outreach efforts intending to communicate information to farm managers may be able to be more efficient at reaching and persuading their intended audience if they first investigate manager information behavior.

Intervention to increase adoption of safer dairy farming production practices.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted an intervention to increase adoption of three dairy farming practices shown to reduce certain traumatic and musculoskeletal injury hazards. METHODS: The intervention disseminated information to 4,300 Wisconsin dairy farm managers about three safer, more profitable production practices (barn lights, bag silos, and calf feed mixing sites) using information channels upon which these managers were known to rely. We evaluated rolling, independent, community-based samples at baseline and after each of two intervention years. We also evaluated a single sample after the intervention's second year from 1,200 Maryland dairy farm managers who were exposed only to the intervention's nationally distributed print publications, as a "partially exposed" comparison group. RESULTS: In before/after comparisons, Wisconsin managers reported getting more information from print media, public events, and resource people for barn lights and bag silos. Also, Wisconsin managers, in comparison with Maryland managers after the intervention's second year, reported getting more barn lights and bag silo information from public events and resource people, but not from print media. Analyses that adjusted for farm manager, farm operation, and herd variables associated the intervention with increased Wisconsin manager adoption of all three practices after the second intervention year: barn lights (odds ratio [OR] = 2.268, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.476, 3.485), bag silos (OR = 3.561, 95% CI 2.684, 4.728), and calf feeding sites (OR = 2.433, 95% CI 1.059, 5.591). There were also increases in awareness of barn lights and calf feeding sites. CONCLUSION: Disseminating information to managers through well-known information channels was associated with increased reports of information gathering, adoption, and awareness of safer, profit-enhancing work practices in a high-hazard industry.

Work exposures, injuries, and musculoskeletal discomfort among children and adolescents in dairy farming.

Little research is available about the specifics of child or adolescent work on dairy farm operations. The objective of this study was to investigate work performed by children and adolescents on these operations. The authors administered mail questionnaires to a community-based, age- and operation size-stratified sample of individuals aged 6 to 18 (n = 240) who worked on dairy operations in Wisconsin. Data were collected in 1999. The 197 children and adolescents reported averaging 567 hours of dairy farm work in the last year (10.9 hours/week) and completed over 1/3 of all calf feeding, 1/5 of the milking, 1/5 of cow feeding, and 1/10 of tractor operation hours on their farm during the weeks they worked. Some of these young workers reported accomplishing duties also judged by some experts as hazardous work, including nearly half of the 9- to 11-year-olds driving tractors. Six nonfatal injuries were reported that required stopping work (14.6 per 100 full time equivalents per year), including those that required medical attention. Musculoskeletal discomfort and disability reports were unremarkable compared to existing studies of general and working populations. Wisconsin dairy farm youth appeared to be working no more hours per week than their peers in other studies of agricultural populations. Adolescents and some children largely performed the same range of tasks and often the same scope of work as adults, including some performing hazardous work. There is a need for further investigations with larger samples of dairy youth to confirm these findings. The exposures of very young workers to hazardous tractor driving and tower silo tasks suggest that there is an urgent need for improved and validated interventions to reduce these exposures.

Evaluation of a four year intervention to reduce musculoskeletal hazards among berry growers.

PROBLEM: Fresh market berry production workers are exposed to physical risk factors for musculoskeletal injury. METHOD: We disseminated information through trade publications and other sources to berry managers in seven U.S. states about five prevention through design practices that were both safer and more profitable than traditional methods. We administered mail evaluation questionnaires prior to the intervention and after each of four intervention years to rolling, independent U.S. samples and to comparison New Zealand berry farm manager samples after years one through three. RESULTS: U.S. manager self-reports of reading trade publication information increased compared to baseline values for two of five practices and self-reported awareness increased for four of five practices. There were no increases in adoption. More U.S. than New Zealand managers reported getting information about two practices from trade publications and about four practices from public events. No U.S. versus New Zealand differences were observed in reported awareness or adoption for any practice. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: This study showed that even a modest campaign can build awareness of safer practices fairly quickly in three to four years among small agricultural firms but that increasing adoption apparently requires more time. Widespread adoption of safer practices could help keep operators in business longer as they age by reducing the workload and musculoskeletal strain associated with labor intensive crop production for them and their workforce. Adoption of practices that also improve profits, like the five practices featured in this study, could also help managers stay in business.

Evaluation of an intervention to reduce musculoskeletal hazards among fresh market vegetable growers.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted an intervention to convince small, fresh market vegetable operations to adopt mesh bags and standard containers, two production practices that aid in crop handling and that are known to improve labor efficiency and reduce exposures to musculoskeletal injury hazards. METHODS: The intervention disseminated information about the practices to growers through trade publications, public events, university Extension, and growers already using the practices. A mail questionnaire was administered to vegetable growers (n=243 and 207) before and after the intervention. Strawberry growers were used as a comparison group and also received questionnaires (n=50 and 35). RESULTS: After the intervention, more vegetable growers reported seeing information about mesh bags in trade publications (37% vs. 59%) and information about standard containers at public events (33% vs. 49%). Levels of self-reported adoption increased for containers (38% vs. 54%) and approached significance for bags (8% vs. 17%). Aware, non-adopting grower perceptions of bag profitability improved (2.6 vs. 3.8). Strawberry grower control results were unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Better information flow to growers may be able to increase the speed with which agricultural practices with better ergonomics are adopted, especially when the practices are more profitable.