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. 2023 Oct;28(4):640-646.
doi: 10.1080/1059924X.2023.2209091. Epub 2023 May 2.

Dairy Farm Work and Protection from Gastrointestinal Illness

Jeffrey J VanWormer  1 , Casper G Bendixsen  2 , Sanjay K Shukla  3
Affiliations

Dairy Farm Work and Protection from Gastrointestinal Illness

Jeffrey J VanWormer et al. J Agromedicine. 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders are a major public health burden in the United States. Due to close contact with animals, farmers may be a high risk subgroup for acute GI infections, though some studies suggest farm work is actually protective against GI illness. The purpose of this study was to examine associations between dairy farm work and GI symptoms over 3 years. A prospective, matched cohort study was used that included 70 adult dairy farm workers and 74 matched (age, gender, ZIP code) non-farm participants from central Wisconsin. The outcome was mean GI symptom scores for abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, dyspepsia, nausea, and reflux, per the 23-item Gastrointestinal Symptoms Severity Index (GISSI). After adjustment for potential confounding variables, linear regression results indicated dairy farm workers had significantly lower GISSI scores for abdominal pain (mean±SE = 4.3 ± 1.1 dairy vs. 7.6 ± 1.1 non-farm, p = .047), diarrhea (3.2 ± 1.0 dairy vs. 7.0 ± 1.0 non-farm, p = .010), constipation (2.0 ± 0.8 dairy vs. 6.6 ± 0.8 non-farm, p < .001), and dyspepsia (2.0 ± 0.6 dairy vs. 3.9 ± 0.5 non-farm, p = .026). Working on a dairy farm was associated with significantly less frequent and severe GI illness symptoms in adults. Future research should identify underlying causal pathways, including possible farm animal exposures, that influence beneficial gut microbiota that could inform therapeutic remedies to help prevent clinical GI disorders.

Keywords: Farm; adults; cohort; gastrointestinal; symptoms.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure statement

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Multivariable model-based estimates of Gastrointestinal Symptoms Severity Index (GISSI) component scores between.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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