Assessing the impact of socio-demographics and farming activity on ward-level mortality patterns using farm and population decennial censuses.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Farmers experience a specific set of unique dangers, which increases their risk of mortality compared with any other occupation. This study hypothesised that Northern Ireland's (NIs) agriculturally saturated Wards have a higher risk of mortality compared against non-agriculturally based Wards. DESIGN: The Population Census and Farm Census information were downloaded from the Northern Ireland Neighbourhood Service (NINIS) online depository to compile three mortality-based data sets (2001, 2011, pooled data sets). Assessing the impact of socio-demographics and farming activity on Ward-level mortality patterns using farm and population decennial censuses. This study analysed all 582 Ward areas of NI, which enclosed the entire populace of the country in 2001 and 2011. FINDINGS: Path analysis was utilised to examine direct and indirect paths linked with mortality within two census years (2001; 2011), alongside testing pathways for invariance between census years (pooled data set). Ward-level results provided evidence for exogenous variables to mortality operating through three/four endogenous variables via: (i) direct effects (age), (ii) summed indirect effects (age; males; living alone; farming profit; and deprivation) and (iii) total effects (age; males; living alone; and deprivation). Multi-group results cross-validated these cause-and-effect relationships relating to mortality. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that farming intensity scores, farming profits and socio-demographics' influence on mortality risk in a Ward were dependent on the specific social-environmental characteristics within that area. In line with earlier area level research, results support the aggregated interpretation that higher levels of farming activity within a Ward increase the risk of mortality within those Wards of NI. This was an essential study to enable future tailoring of new strategies and upgrading of current policies to bring about significant mortality risk change at local level.

Data report on three datasets: Mortality patterns between agricultural and non-agricultural ward areas.

The health of the farming community in Northern Ireland (NI) requires further research as previous mortality studies have reported contradictory results regarding farmers' health outcomes compared against other occupations and the general population. This study collated the NINIS area-level farm census with the population census information across 582 non-overlapping wards of NI to compile three mortality datasets (2001, 2011, and pooled dataset) (NISRA 2019). These datasets allow future researchers to investigate the influence of demographic, farming, and economic predictors on all-cause mortality at the ward level. The 2001 and 2011 mortality datasets were compiled for cross-sectional analyses and subsequently pooled for longitudinal analyses. Findings from these datasets will provide evidence of the influence of Farming Intensity scores influence on death risk within the wards for future researchers to utilise. This data report will aid in the understanding of socio-ecological variables' additive contribution to the risk of death at the ward level within NI. This data report is of interest to the One Health research community as it standardises the environment-human-animal data to pave the way towards a new One Health research paradigm. For example, future researchers can use this nationally representative data to investigate whether agriculturally saturated wards have a higher mortality risk than non-agriculturally based wards of NI.