C.A. Heaney and M.B.
Elliot
NIOSH Education and Information Division
The
farm crisis of the 1980's and the Midwest Flood in 1993 have
increased concern about stress-related health problems among
farmers. Previous published studies and some new analyses
of the Ohio Farm Family Health and Hazard Survey (OFFHHS)
suggest that farmers experience high levels of occupational
stress. The term "stress" best describes a process through
which individuals are exposed to, appraise, and respond to
difficult or threatening conditions in their social and physical
environments. Previous work has focused on farmers' perceptions
of stress and the symptoms that accompany high stress levels
among farmers. However, there has been no valid instrument
for measuring farm stressors, defined as the objective conditions
or aspects of farming that are associated most strongly with
high stress levels and stress-related symptoms. Little is
known about the basic epidemiology of farm stressors, i.e.,
their prevalence, distribution, and relative impacts on health.
Without such knowledge, it is difficult to develop interventions
that will effectively reduce farmers' suffering due to exposure
to stressors.
This
paper describes the development of a new survey instrument
designed to assess farm stressors, the Farm Stressor Inventory
(FSI). The sources of information used for the development
of the FSI included the published literature, data from farmer
assistance hotlines, and data from farmer focus groups in
Kentucky. The ways these information sources were used, as
well as the procedures for ensuring face validity and technical
quality of the survey items, will be described. The FSI is
intended to measure all potentially prevalent farm stressors.
Items from the following categories of stressors will be presented:
personal finances, weather, regulatory climate, workload and
other job demands, physical environment, control and ambiguity,
interpersonal issues, and job and retirement security.
The
FSI can be used to test hypotheses about the role of farm
stressors in the etiology of injury and disease that heretofore
could not be explored. For example, one hypothesis is that
exposure to physical hazards on the farm is more likely to
lead to injury when the farmer is also being exposed to psychosocial
stressors. Examples of research designs incorporating the
use of the FSI will be presented, emphasizing the research
questions that can be answered and how the results from such
studies would inform the development of prevention strategies.
Disclaimer
and Reproduction Information: Information in NASD does not
represent NIOSH policy. Information included in NASD appears
by permission of the author and/or copyright holder. More
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: Both from The Ohio State University,
Columbus, OH.
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