Education, equipment modification and injury control among farm workers in Kentucky

Abstract Stallones L., 1989. Education, equipment modification and injury control among farm workers in Kentucky. Journal of Occupational Accidents., 10 000-000. Little evaluation of education programs targeted at safety of agricultural workers has been attempted. Further, there is very little reported regarding evaluation of equipment modification in reducing agricultural injuries. This paper presents an intervention classification strategy using existing data to begin the process of designing an appropriate surveillance scheme for fatal and nonfatal agricultural injuries in Kentucky. For fatal agricultural injuries occurring between 1979–1985, 31.9% were classified as requiring intervention by “education only”, 26.3% were classified as requiring intervention including “education and equipment modification”, and 36.6% were classified as requiring “equipment modification only”, in order to reduce severity or prevent the injuries. For nonfatal agricultural injuries which occurred on a random sample of Kentucky farms during 1978, 43.8% were classified as requiring “education only”, 44.9% were classified as requiring “education and equipment modification”, and only 11.2% requiring “equipment modification only” as intervention strategies for prevention or reduction of severity of the injuries. Existing data can be used to begin the evaluation process but ongoing surveillance systems must be designed with intervention strategies as one consideration in order that appropriate data be obtained.