Background: Although agricultural workers experience a high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain, associations between specific agricultural activities and musculoskeletal pain are not well characterized.
Methods: Among 518 regional farmers, responses to a mailed questionnaire were used to estimate (i) the 2-week prevalence of low back, neck/shoulder, and elbow/wrist/hand pain, and (ii) associations between the average hours per week performing common agricultural activities and musculoskeletal pain.
Results: The low back was the most common location of musculoskeletal pain (33.2%), followed by the neck/shoulder (30.8%) and elbow/wrist/hand (21.6%). Statistically significant adjusted associations were observed between performing equipment repair and maintenance and low back pain; milking animals and neck/shoulder pain; and manual material handling and elbow/wrist/hand pain, among others.
Conclusions: The observed prevalence estimates are consistent with previous literature, and the associations between agricultural activities and musculoskeletal pain provide an initial basis for targeted intervention research.
Keywords: agriculture; epidemiology; ergonomics; musculoskeletal pain.
© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.