Risk factors for injury in rural Iowa: preliminary data from the Keokuk County rural health study

• Published in: Journal of agromedicine 1997-08, Vol.4 (3-4), p.295-302
• Main Authors: Zwerling, Craig, Merchant, James A., Reynolds, Stephen J., Burmeister, Leon F., Stromquist, Ann M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: agriculteur; agricultores; alcohol abuse; all-terrain vehicles; bicycles; farm; farmers; firearms; Injury; iowa; motorcycles; occupational hazards; riesgo; riesgos ocupacionales; risk; risk factors; risque; risque professionnel; rural; rural areas; seat belts; swimming; zonas rurales; zone rurale
• ISSN: 1059-924X; 1545-0813
• DOI: 10.1300/J096v04n03_13

Preliminary analyses of data from one third of the Keokuk County Rural Health Study cohort suggest that risk factors for injury among rural populations are not uniformly distributed and that the pattern varies with the risk factor. For some, such as expo-sure to all-terrain vehicles, the occupation of farmer determines the degree of exposure to the risk factor. Similarly, farmers seem less likely than other rural people to wear their seat belts. Although farm-ers are not more likely than rural nonfarmers to have firearms in their homes, they are more likely to have used them in the last year. How-ever, for other injury risk factors such as alcohol consumption, there do not appear to be differences among farmers, rural nonfarmers, and townspeople. These early results suggest that the Keokuk County Rural Health Study will yield important information for tar-geting specific rural injury prevention interventions.