Comparisons of working conditions and health-related problems between older male and female crop farmers

Abstract

Background: Although the number of farmers in Korea is declining, the proportion of older farmers aged ≥60 increases.

Objective: This study aims to analyze gender differences in working conditions, exposure to risk factors, and health problems of older crop farmers aged ≥60.

Methods: This study used data from the 5th Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) data of 818 male and 985 female crop farmers aged ≥60 years.

Results: This study showed that older female farmers had higher ratios of living alone (45.0% vs. 13.4%, p < 0.001), lower education levels (80.7% vs. 53.4%, p < 0.001), and lower average incomes (1.565 vs. 2.036 million KRW, p < 0.001) than that of males. Among subjective scores on the exposure of risk factors, only females' repetitive motion (4.923) and awkward posture (4.415) scores were higher than that of males' repetitive motion (4.601) (p < 0.001) and awkward posture (4.159) scores (p = 0.001). However, female's health problem rates on upper limb pain (68.3%), lower extremity pain (67.6%), backache (48.4%), overall fatigue (44.8%), and headache and eyestrain (25.0%) were higher than that of male's complaint rates on upper limb pain (48.5%) (p < 0.001), lower extremity pain (53.3%) (p < 0.001), backache (35.0%) (p < 0.001), overall fatigue (39.5%) (p = 0.024), and headache and eyestrain (19.4%) (p = 0.005). The rate of depression symptoms in females (54.6%), with a high proportion of single-person households, was higher than that of males (46.9%) (p = 0.001).

Conclusions: The musculoskeletal pains and depression symptoms of older female farmers are prevalent, and efforts and support are required to improve working conditions.

Keywords: Farmworkers; depression; musculoskeletal pain; occupational health.