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L.A.
Jones, G.L.
Mitchell, J.R.
Wilkins III, J.M.
Crawford and T.L.
Bean
NIOSH Education and Information Division
Health
care utilization is currently a topic of much discussion.
Using data obtained from the Ohio Farm Family Health and Hazard
Surveillance Program, self-reported aspects of health care
utilization for cash grain farmers will be described.
Eighty-nine
percent of the farmers who answered the question indicated
that they had a particular health care source, which was greater
than the 81% reported for the U.S. population in 1987. Of
those with a particular source, 91.4% indicated using a medical
doctor's office or private clinic. The use of a chiropractor
or naturopath as a source was reported by 8% of the farmers.
Only 5% responded that a hospital emergency room was a possible
medical care source. No other source of health care services
was utilized by more than 5% of the farmers. This pattern
of use appears to be different from that reported for the
U.S. for the year 1987.
Utilization
was stratified by farm size, education, presence/absence of
children, and income. Farm size was not found to be related
to whether a particular source of health care was used, and
though not statistically significant, there was a decreasing
trend in utilization of chiropractic services as farm size
increased. Between educational levels there was a significant
difference in whether the farmer had a particular health care
source. In examining the individual sources of health care,
chiropractic care was used more often by those with no more
than a high school education. Differences were not seen for
any of the other types of services.
When
the data were examined by whether the Principal Operator had
children or not, there was a significant difference between
the two groups, with families having children being more likely
to have a particular source of health care, though there were
no differences between specific sources of care. Among the
five income levels, there were no significant differences,
overall, by whether or not a particular health care source
was used, or by individual source.
Though
there is evidence suggesting a lack of medical care access
for the rural population, it appears that among this farming
population the majority have access and utilize medical care
services.
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NASD Review: 04/2002
This
research abstract was extracted from a portion of the proceedings
of "Agricultural Safety and Health: Detection, Prevention
and Intervention," a conference presented by the Ohio State
University and the Ohio Department of Health, sponsored by
the Centers for Disease Control/National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health.
The
authors noted above are from: All at The Ohio State University,
Columbus, OH.
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