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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Barbara Marlenga, PhD, National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, 1000 North Oak Avenue, Marshfield, WI 54449, 715-389-3021, marlengb@mmrf.mfldclin.edu, William Pickett, PhD, Emergency Medicine Research, Queen's University, Angada 3, Kingston General Hospital, 76 Stuart Street, Kingston, ON K7L 2V7, Canada, and Richard Berg, MS, Marshfield Medical Research and Education Foundation, 1000 North Oak Avenue, Marshfield, WI 54449.
Many childhood farm tractor injuries occur during the performance of farm work that was assigned by parents, and some of this work is beyond the developmental capabilities of children. The purpose of this study was to assess farm parents’ knowledge of child development within a group of farmers who had received a new parent resource, the North American Guidelines for Children’s Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT). Further, we wanted to determine whether this knowledge was associated with a) non-use of NAGCAT in the assignment of tractor work, and b) non-compliance with two aspects of the tractor work guideline contained within NAGCAT. The study involved a secondary analysis of data collected during a randomized controlled trial involving 450 farms in the United States and Canada. The variables assessed included 1) parental knowledge of child development across several ages groups and across three domains of child development (physical, cognitive, psychosocial); 2) a census of the most common tractor jobs assigned to each child; and 3) a report of whether NAGCAT was used in making these tractor work assignments. Relative to baseline (“high knowledge” parents), risks for non-use of NAGCAT were consistent among “medium knowledge” parents (RR: 0.98; 95%CI: 0.59-1.63), but substantially higher among “low knowledge” parents (RR: 3.50; 95%CI: 2.09-5.88). However, even in the presence of high knowledge, nearly 25% of farm parents’ still assigned work to their children that was in violation of NAGCAT. These results suggest that educational interventions by themselves are not sufficient to remove farm children from known occupational hazards.
Learning Objectives:
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.