ABSTRACT

This study assesses whether farmers’ suicides were associated with the pesticide use in Spain. The cohort study followed 9.5 million men aged 20–64 years who were employed in 2001. The mortality among farmers and non-farmers during the period 2001–2011 was estimated in a geographical area with high pesticide use and in an area with low pesticide use. For three major causes of death (suicide, unintentional accidents, and rest of causes of death), we estimated the age-standardized mortality rates with 95% confidence intervals (CI) between farmers and non-farmers in both areas. Farmers in the high pesticide use area showed a lower mortality rate of suicide and unintentional accidents than farmers in the rest of Spain, with mortality rate ratios of 0.74 (95% CI 0.65–0.85) and 0.57 (95% CI 0.52–0.62), respectively. Our findings on pesticide use and farmers’ suicide are different from those observed in several previous investigations.

摘要

这项研究评估了农民的自杀是否与西班牙的农药使用有关。队列研究跟踪了 2001 年就业的 950 万 20-64 岁男性。 2001-2011 年期间农民和非农民的死亡率是在农药使用量高的地区和农药使用量低的地区估计的. 对于三个主要死因（自杀、意外事故和其他死因），我们用 95% 置信区间 (CI) 估计了这两个地区农民和非农民之间的年龄标准化死亡率。与西班牙其他地区的农民相比，农药使用高地区的农民自杀和意外事故的死亡率较低，死亡率比分别为 0.74 (95% CI 0.65–0.85) 和 0.57 (95% CI 0.52–0.62)，分别。