Funded by: NIOSH; Grant Number: R01 0H03915

NHIS evaluation of mortality among US farmers and pesticide applicators

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is an annual multipurpose household survey with probability sampling of US population since 1957, with Mortality Follow Up through 1995.  The study objective was to assess overall and cause-specific mortality for farmers and pesticide applicators compared to all other US workers.  Cox proportional hazard models were used.

9,573 farmers and pesticide applicators with 378 deaths were identified from 450,540 US adult workers with 7926 deaths.  Farmers and pesticide applicators were significantly older at the time of interview (p< 0.001); after adjusting for gender and age, they were healthier.  However, mortality due to accidents was significantly elevated (Relative Risk=1.98; 95% CI= [1.39, 2.92]), while respiratory cancer mortality was significantly decreased (0.58; [0.39, 0.83]).  Controlling for age, there was significantly increased mortality from accidents (men: 1.81 [1.23, 2.65]; women: 3.96 [1.62, 9.71]), with insignificant elevation in male genital cancers and female lymphatic/hematopoietic cancers.  In comparisons between farmers and applicators although not significant, applicators were at greater risk of overall and cause-specific mortality (cardiovascular disease, infection, all and respiratory cancers), while farmers were at greater risk for accidents and lymphatic/hematopoietic cancers.

This study is the first to evaluate the mortality experience of farmers and pesticide applicators over the past 2 decades using a sample representative of the entire US working population.  The NHIS dataset represents a unique surveillance resource for morbidity and mortality of US workers.