ABSTRACT

Purpose: Rates of organic farms and women organic farmers are increasing. Yet, this recent surge brings new and uncertain challenges for injury epidemiology. Since many in the population are of child-bearing age, and child agricultural injury is a significant threat, of particular relevance are the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs towards risk of child injury.

Methods: A paper, self-administered 11-question questionnaire was distributed at four events geared towards early career women organic farmers. The questionnaire generated data around select demographics, attitudes towards farm safety, and sources of safety knowledge.

Findings & Discussion: The questionnaire had a 45% response rate. As expected, most respondents were new to farming (1–3 years’ experience as a primary owner/operator), and 47% reported having a child under the age of 18 years work on the farm. While respondents recognized farms were generally unsafe for children, they reported their own farm as safe for children. Preferred sources of safety knowledge were those with user-generated content from other farmers.

Conclusion: Interventions with new women organic farmers in the Midwest are likely to be most effective by incorporating social media, networking with area farmers’ groups, and addressing the optimism bias. Information not explicitly marketed as safety information may gain traction. A more complete analysis of risk, incidence, and prevalence of this niche population is important.

 抽象的

目的：有机农场和女性有机农民的比例正在增加。然而，最近的这种激增给伤害流行病学带来了新的、不确定的挑战。由于人口中许多人处于育龄期，而儿童农业伤害是一个重大威胁，因此特别重要的是对儿童伤害风险的知识、态度和信念。

方法：在针对早期职业女性有机农民的四场活动中分发了一份包含 11 个问题的纸质自填问卷。该调查问卷生成了有关特定人口统计数据、对农场安全的态度以及安全知识来源的数据。

结果与讨论：调查问卷的回复率为 45%。正如预期的那样，大多数受访者都是农业新手（作为主要所有者/经营者有 1-3 年的经验），47% 的受访者表示有 18 岁以下的孩子在农场工作。虽然受访者承认农场通常对儿童来说不安全，但他们报告说自己的农场对儿童来说是安全的。安全知识的首选来源是其他农民的用户生成内容。

结论：通过整合社交媒体、与地区农民团体建立联系以及解决乐观偏见，对中西部新女性有机农民的干预可能是最有效的。未明确作为安全信息销售的信息可能会受到关注。对这一利基人群的风险、发病率和患病率进行更全面的分析非常重要。