Agriculture accounts for over half of Australia's land use therefore the farmers managing this land need to be safe at work. This paper offers measuring farm safety culture as a way to overcome the stagnation in the trend of fatal farm injury burden. To work towards achieving a way to measure farm safety culture, this research reviewed the leading indicators of safety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Farm workers are at high risk for injuries, and epidemiological data are needed to plan resource allocation.
Objective: This study identified regions with high farm-related injury rates in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, for residents aged ≥50 yr.
Design: Retrospective synthesis using electronic medical records of emergency presentations occurring during 2017-2019 inclusive for Local Government Areas (LGA) in the study region.
Objectives: Patients requiring mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit (ICU) have diminished respiratory defences and are at high risk of respiratory compromise, leading to an increased risk of pulmonary infection and prolonged ventilation. Ventilator hyperinflation (VHI) is an airway clearance technique used by physiotherapists and is suggested to improve respiratory mechanics. The objective of this study was to review the evidence for the benefits and risks of VHI in intubated and mechanically ventilated patients in the ICU.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChildren on farms are at increased risk of injury. In Australia, children under 15 years consistently represent ~15% of all farm-related fatalities. This study aimed to develop parent and child surveys to gain a greater understanding of children's (5-14 years) exposure to occupational risk on farms by exploring their exposure to farm hazards, risk-taking behavior, their use and attitudes toward safety measures, and experience of farm-related injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Farmers are faced with many stressors, along with numerous barriers to accessing traditional forms of mental health support. The ifarmwell online intervention was co-designed with farmers and is informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to equip farmers with transferable coping strategies, particularly to help them cope with circumstances beyond their control. We aimed to evaluate the effect of ifarmwell on farmers' short- and long-term distress and mental wellbeing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA significant portion of on-farm deaths and injuries in Australia occur among young people working on the farm. Since most Australian farms are still family owned and operated, young people are an integral part of everyday operations and the farm is a place where these young people live, work and play. This paper describes how the international Gear Up for Ag Health and Safety™ program, originally developed in North America, was further developed for a younger Australian audience (ages 12-19) enrolled in agricultural programs at secondary or vocational schools.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
February 2022
Heat kills more Australians than any other natural disaster. Previous Australian research has identified increases in Emergency Department presentations in capital cities; however, little research has examined the effects of heat in rural/regional locations. This retrospective cohort study aimed to determine if Emergency Department (ED) presentations across the south-west region of Victoria, Australia, increased on high-heat days (1 February 2017 to 31 January 2020) using the Rural Acute Hospital Data Register (RAHDaR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Farming is physically and psychologically hazardous. Farmers face many barriers to help seeking from traditional physical and mental health services; however, improved internet access now provides promising avenues for offering support.
Objective: This study aims to co-design with farmers the content and functionality of a website that helps them adopt transferable coping strategies and test its acceptability in the broader farming population.
Purpose: Research examining psychological well-being associated with COVID-19 in rural/regional Australia is limited. This study aimed to assess the extent of psychological distress, fear of COVID-19, and coping strategies among the attendees in COVID-19 screening clinics at 2 rural Victorian settings.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during July 2020 to February 2021 inclusive.
Chronic health conditions are more prevalent in rural and remote areas than in metropolitan areas; living in rural and remote areas may present particular barriers to the self-management of chronic conditions like diabetes and comorbidities. The aims of this review were to: (1) synthesise evidence examining the self-management of diabetes and comorbidities among adults living in rural and remote communities; and (2) describe barriers and enablers underpinning self-management reported in studies that met our inclusion criteria. A systematic search of English language papers was undertaken in PsycINFO, Medline Complete, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) Complete, EMBASE and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, searching for literature indexed from the beginning of the database until 6 March 2020.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
June 2021
Children on farms have been identified as a population vulnerable to injury. This review seeks to identify child farm-related injury rates in Australia and to determine the key hazards and contributing risk factors. This critical review utilised the PRISMA guidelines for database searching.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
April 2021
Primary producers face considerable risks for poor mental health. While this population can be difficult to engage in programs to prevent poor mental health, approaches tailored to reflect the context of primary producers' life and work have been successful. This paper reports on the co-design phase of a project designed to prevent poor mental health for primary producers-specifically, the advantages, challenges and considerations of translating face-to-face co-design methods to an online environment in response to COVID-19 restrictions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Publisher regrets that this article is an accidental duplication of an article that has already been published, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Despite continued higher rates of workplace injuries, earlier morbidity and mortality and challenging climatic environments, few formal programs focus on the health, well-being and safety of farmers. The agricultural health and medicine unit, developed in 2010, was designed to increase cultural competence and empower rural professionals to improve the health, well-being and safety outcomes of farming populations in Australia. This study aimed to understand the extent to which graduates (2010-2018) use the knowledge and skills gained in their current occupations and identify barriers and enablers faced in implementing them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLeading up to the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties 15, there is momentum around setting bold conservation targets. Yet, it remains unclear how much of Earth's land area remains without significant human influence and where this land is located. We compare four recent global maps of human influences across Earth's land, Anthromes, Global Human Modification, Human Footprint and Low Impact Areas, to answer these questions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRural Remote Health
January 2020
Introduction: Organophosphates are a class of insecticides used globally by the agricultural industry for insect control. Acute consequences of organophosphate exposures are well known, while there has been limited research on their long-term effects. The objective of this review was to discuss the health effects of chronic organophosphate exposure in farmers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMountains are the water towers of the world, supplying a substantial part of both natural and anthropogenic water demands. They are highly sensitive and prone to climate change, yet their importance and vulnerability have not been quantified at the global scale. Here we present a global water tower index (WTI), which ranks all water towers in terms of their water-supplying role and the downstream dependence of ecosystems and society.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In order to implement intervention strategies to prevent falls from height, epidemiological data are needed. The aim of this study was to map emergency presentations for falls from height in residents aged ≥40yr of the western region of Victoria, Australia.
Methods: Emergency presentations following a fall from height (≥1m) were obtained from electronic medical records for 2014-2016 inclusive.