 |
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
|
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Deborah Reed, PhD, College of Nursing, University of Kentucky, 553 CON/HSLC, rose St., Lexington, KY 40536-0232, 859-257-9636, dbreed01@pop.uky.edu and Pamela S Kidd, PhD, College of Nursing, Arizona State University, PO box 872602, Tempe, AZ 85287.
Objective: To describe a classroom-based program to improve safe farm work practices of teens. Background: Farm adolescents engage in many hazardous work activities. In the last decade the morbidity rate for farm child injuries has increased. The goal of this participatory action demonstration project was to develop and test the effectiveness of a farm injury prevention program (AgDARE) for high school agriculture students. Over 1,000 students in Kentucky, Iowa, and Mississippi assisted with development and evaluation of the program. Method: A quasi-experimental cross-over design was used. The intervention included eight simulation exercises - four narrative and four physical. These reality-based simulations focused on prevention of amputations, spinal cord injuries, noise-induced hearing loss, and hypersensitivity pneumonitis and emphasized the life-long consequences of permanent disabling conditions. Sample: The intervention group consisted of 591 high school agriculture students in 14 schools, of which 373 completed at least two narrative and two physical simulations that focused on the same disabilities. A total of 547 students from 7 schools were assigned to the control group and 417 of these students had complete data sets. Post-tests were conducted immediately after the second intervention. Results: Students who completed at least two matched units of AgDARE demonstrated significant positive changes (p<.01) in both Farm Safety Attitude and Stages of Change scores compared to control students. Conclusions: This innovative approach to introducing students to safe farm practices may be useful in reducing the incidence of injury among young farm workers.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Adolescent Health, Agricultural Work Safety
Related Web page: www.mc.uky.edu/SCAHIP
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.