Agriculture and Injuries: A System for Injury Surveillance in Swedish Emergency Care as a Basis of Injury Control

AUTHOR ABSTRACT

There are several problems associated with registries; the expense of operating, organizing and staffing a registry and the quality of data. Injury control in agriculture is limited by a lack of comprehensive data on all categories of injuries.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate registry completeness, measurement errors, trend analysis and calculation of risk, to describe the yield of farm injury surveillance and to test the applicability of a model for safety education and training. The study comprised all patients treated by the outpatient medical services for injuries on 2,454 Swedish farms during a one-year period.

The registration system permitted the analysis of system coverage and could be used as a basis for periodic surveys and trend analysis, but further development is needed concerning the organization and staffing problems. Because of the major taxonomic deficiencies of the E-code, a specific questionnaire was developed for collection of data on the circumstances during the accident. Limitations applied to calculation of accident frequency rates per million hours of work. The study showed that farm-work-related accidents in the study area were greatly under-represented in official occupational injury statistics. The importance of registry inclusion criteria when one is comparing different injury surveillance systems was noted.

Collection and analysis of data showed that the methods used could yield information on medical consequences, sequence of events and contributing and background factors. The evaluation of the safety education and training programme demonstrated that the most important factors were the location of the courses, the recruitment procedure and realistic exercises with demonstration of major risks and safe methods of working.

The results may serve as a basis for increased information on the nature and scope of farm injuries. They also provide a basis for planning measures aimed at changing farmers' safety attitudes, e.g. increasing the use of personal protective equipment. A third potential use is selection of priority groups for safety education, training and supervision. It is recommended that an active safety programme should comprise five headings; mass-communication, education, job safety analysis, training and supervision. The health services can provide a basis for health planning for farm injury control.

SOURCE: Studies on epidemiology of injuries in agriculture. Sundyberg, Sweden: Karolinska Institute; 1988. n.p. ISBN: 91-7044-108- 1.

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