The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #55305

Orlando Gomez Marin, Phd¹, William LeBlanc, Phd¹, Diane Zheng, MS¹, David James Lee, PhD², Lora E. Fleming, MD PhD MPH MSc², Fangchao Ma, MD², Dulcie Jane, BA¹, and Terry Pitman². (1) Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Miami School of Medicine, 1801 NW 9th Ave Suite 200, Miami, FL 33136, 305 243 5912, ogomez@med.miami.edu, (2) Epidemiology & Public Health (R-669), University of Miami School of Medicine, PO Box 016069, Miami, FL 33101

Background: To establish and apply a methodology to assess predictors of health status and acute and chronic disability for farmers and pesticide applicators compared to all other US workers using the 1986-1994 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS). Methods: After adjustment for sample weights and design effects using SUDAAN, several measures of acute and chronic disability and health status were modeled using multiple logistic regression. Results: Farmers were, on average, significantly older than the rest of the US workforce. After adjusting for age, gender, race-ethnicity, and education, compared to all other US workers (n = 453,219), farmers (n = 9576) and pesticide applicators (n = 180) were more likely to be male, White, Hispanic, and less well educated; farmers were significantly less likely to report acute and chronic disability and poor health, while pesticide applicators were more likely to report chronic disability and poor health. Conclusions: Given the cross sectional nature of the data and the significant job demands of farming, both leading to a relative healthy worker effect, the present results indicate that at any point in time, compared to other US workers, farmers are in general healthier, whereas, despite the small numbers, pesticide applicators have similar or poorer health.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and its possible uses in the exploration of US worker Health and Safety
• Evaluate the use of the NHIS database to describe the acute and chronic disability experience of pesticide exposed US workers

Keywords: Data/Surveillance, Pesticides

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.