M.B.
Elliott, C.A. Heaney, J.R.
Wilkins III, G.L. Wilkins and T.L.
Bean
NIOSH Education and Information Division
There
are two schools of thought regarding farm family stress. One
holds that farmers are less stressed than other workers because
of the idyllic pastoral setting in which they work. A second
cites numerous stressors that are unique to the farm environment
(e.g., adverse economic conditions and unpredictable weather)
and claims that farming is a stressful occupation. Although
small scale studies of farm stress have been conducted using
farm specific stress measures, no previous study has been
able to directly compare a large representative farming population
with national norms. The Ohio Farm Family Health and Hazard
Surveillance Project (OFFHHS), a survey of 4,860 cash grain
farms in Ohio, provides an opportunity to make this comparison,
and to study the correlates of stress and depression among
farmers.
The
10 item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the 20 item Center
for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD) were used
as dependent measures. Only male principal operators (n=1388)
were used in this analysis. Data from the OFFHHS are compared
with data from the First National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey Epidemiologic Follow-up Study (NHEFS), and with data
collected by the author of the PSS from a national representative
sample.
Age
adjusted results indicate that the farmers were statistically
significantly more stressed (xfarmer=12.42, xnational=11.75,
x1158=2.85) and more depressed (xfarmer=4.53,
xnational=3.71, x2548=4.22) than a national
sample of employed, non-disabled males. Preliminary results
on the correlates of farm stress indicated that age was inversely
related to stress. Principal operators with large farms and
low earnings reported higher levels of stress than those with
small farms and low earnings. Surprisingly, farmers who worked
full time on the farm and also held down an additional full-time
job scored lower on the stress measure than those full-time
farmers who worked off farm only part-time or not at all.
Significant correlates of depression included education and
age, each being inversely related to depression. Principal
operators of large farms who had low earnings scored higher
on the depression scale than operators of small farms with
low earnings. Lower depression scores were related to working
more hours off of the farm.
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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 from The Ohio State University,
Columbus, OH.
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