Recorded presentation

Barbara Marlenga, PhD¹, Robert Brison, MD, MPH, FRCP(C)², Richard Berg, MS³, Jamie L. Zentner, MPH³, James Linneman, AS³, and William Pickett, PhD⁴. (1) National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety, 1000 North Oak Avenue, Marshfield, WI 54449, (2) Dept. of Emergency Medicine, Kingston General Hospital/Queens University, 76 Stuart St, Kingston, ON K7L 3V2, Canada, (3) Marshfield Medical Research and Education Foundation, 1000 North Oak Avenue, Marshfield, WI 54449, (4) Emergency Medicine Research, Queen's University, Angada 3, Kingston General Hospital, 76 Stuart Street, Kingston, ON K7L 2V7, Canada, (613) 549-6666 x3788, pickettw@post.queensu.ca

We recently completed a novel evaluation of North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT) that systematically applied their content to case descriptions of pediatric farm deaths, hospitalized injuries, and restricted activity injuries. Our objectives were to: 1) estimate the proportion of cases where NAGCAT would be an applicable intervention; 2) describe common mechanisms and/or circumstances leading to childhood farm injuries that were NOT covered by NAGCAT; and 3) identify new priorities for injury prevention on farms. 934 cases were reviewed and 850 case reports contained sufficient detail to accurately describe the child’s activity. Children were engaged in farm work in 283/850 (33.3%) of cases. The majority of children, 567/850 (66.7%), were not working at the time of their injury, although 370/567 (65.3%) were injured by a farm worksite hazard. Of these children, 233/370 (63.0%) were under the age of seven. Leading mechanisms of “non-work” injuries that involved a farm worksite hazard included: bystander and passenger runovers (21%); animal trauma (17%); falls from heights (15%); machinery entanglements (11%); and drowning (5%). Common activities leading to injury were playing in the worksite (46%); being a bystander to or extra-rider on farm machinery (35%); and recreational horseback riding (11%). This evaluation resulted in the following lessons. NAGCAT were applicable in only a small proportion of pediatric farm injuries. A large percentage of pediatric farm injuries happen to non-working children. Injuries related to farm worksite hazards are common among non-working children. These lessons should become a major priority for future interventions.

Learning Objectives: Participants will learn

• the extent to which NAGCAT were applicable to the prevention of pediatric farm injuries; and
• common mechanisms and circumstances associated with these injuries that were not covered by NAGCAT, which provide direction for the development of other initiatives aimed at childhood farm injury prevention.

Keywords: Injury Prevention, Evaluation

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.

Recorded presentation