The objective of the study was to describe the characteristics of agriculture and forestry related injury cases admitted to an Emergency Department (ED), and to asses factors related to injury severity and hospital admission. Retrospective analysis of ED case records in Teaching Hospital No 1 in Lublin, from January 2004 to December 2005 were utilized.
Inclusion criteria: patient>14 years old, with agriculture and forestry related injuries. Univariate and bivariate descriptive analyses and multiple logistic regressions were performed. 3791 cases were included, 63.1% males, 53.3% cases younger than 30 years and 47.1% of the patients sustained injuries related to machines or falls. After adjusting for age, sex and the presence of multiple injuries, animal related injuries, followed by machine related injuries and falls, were at higher risk of a more severe injury (OR: 1.77, 1.61 and 1.50, respectively). This groups also showed a higher likelihood of hospital admission (OR: 2.03, 192 and 2.00, respectively). Patients attended to in the ED during night hours (OR: 2.06) were also at a higher risk of hospitalization. It was concluded that animal related injuries, agriculture machine operators, and falls, besides accounting for two thirds of analyzed cases, are the mechanism of injury with a greater risk of a more severe injury and higher likelihood of a hospitalization.