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J Korean Med Assoc > Volume 55(11); 2012 > Article
Ko, Lee, and Lee: The status of agricultural injuries in Korea and implications

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the status of agricultural injuries and to suggest measures to prevent and to manage them. To determine the scale of agricultural injuries in Korea, fatal injury data were analyzed by securing from the Annual Report on the Cause of Death Statistics and moderate to severe injuries were analyzed from the Emergency Department-based Injury Surveillance System (EDBISS). Nationwide data on minor injuries were analyzed from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), the Korean Working Condition Survey (KWCS), and the Farmers Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illness. The SMR of farmers was significantly higher than that of other occupations. When the distribution of severity of injury was investigated from the EDBISS data, the injury severity of farmers was higher than that of other occupations. The rate of industrial injuries from the KWCS data was 4.51% in skilled agricultural and fishery workers, which was around twice as high as those of craft and related trade workers (2.27%) and plant and machine operators and assemblers (2.13%). The occupational injury reporting rate from KNHANES was the second highest, or 4.3%, in skilled agricultural and fishery workers, following that of plant and machine operators (6.2%), while the rates of manual workers, sales and service workers, clerks and professionals, and managers and administrators were 3.5%, 3.0%, 2.7%, and 2.1%, respectively (P<0.001). Social concern over this issue, a reporting system for occupational injuries, preventive measures such as safety education programs, and an accident compensation system are needed to prevent and manage agricultural injuries.

Acknowledgement

This study was supported in part by a grant of the Rural Development Administration (2011-E71006-00 and 2012-E71003-00).

References

1. Robertson LS. Injury epidemiology 1992;New York: Oxford University Press.

2. Karjalainen A. International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (ICD-10) in occupational health 2000;Geneva: World Health Organization.

3. McCurdy SA, Carroll DJ. Agricultural injury. Am J Ind Med 2000;38:463–480.

4. Bureau of Labor Statistics. National census of fatal occupational injuries in 2007 2008;Washington, DC: US Department of Labor.

5. Pickett W, Hartling L, Brison RJ, Guernsey JR. Fatal work-related farm injuries in Canada, 1991-1995. Canadian Agricultural Injury Surveillance Program. CMAJ 1999;160:1843–1848.

6. Tiesman H, Zwerling C, Peek-Asa C, Sprince N, Cavanaugh JE. Non-fatal injuries among urban and rural residents: the National Health Interview Survey, 1997-2001. Inj Prev 2007;13:115–119.

7. Statistics Korea. International statistics year book 2009;Daejeon: Statistics Korea.

8. Jung DY, Kim HC, Leem JH, Park SG, Lee DH, Lee SJ, Kim GW. Estimated occupational injury rate and work related factors based on data from the fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Korean J Occup Environ Med 2011;23:149–163.

9. Lyman S, McGwin G Jr, Enochs R, Roseman JM. History of agricultural injury among farmers in Alabama and Mississippi: prevalence, characteristics, and associated factors. Am J Ind Med 1999;35:499–510.

Figure 1
Injury surveillance type and sources.
jkma-55-1070-g001-l.jpg
Figure 2
Age standarized mortality ratio in agriculture and other occupations.
jkma-55-1070-g002-l.jpg
Figure 3
Occupational injury severity by the Emergency Department-based Injury Surveillance System, 2010.
jkma-55-1070-g003-l.jpg
Table 1
Emergency occupational injuries by Korean Standard Classification of Occupations
jkma-55-1070-i001-l.jpg

Values are presented as number (%).

Table 2
Rate of abesenteeism by Korean Standard Classification of Occupations, 2010
jkma-55-1070-i002-l.jpg

a)The number of participants.

b)The number of subjects experienced one or more occupational injuries.

Table 3
Estimated number of workers who experienced occupational injury
jkma-55-1070-i003-l.jpg

From Jung DY, et al. Korean J Occup Environ Med 2011;23:149-163, with permission from Korean J Occup Environ Med [8].

a)Number of 4th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANESIV) participants per individual category.

b)Administrator number of the KNHANES participants who experienced occupational.

c)Injury during past year per individual category.

d)Estimated number of the Korean workers per individual category.

e)Estimated number of the Korean workers who experienced occupational injury during past year per individual category, standard error.



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