“Mental health among the sugarcane industry farmers and non-farmers in Peru: a cross-sectional study on occupational health“
![Thumbnail](/bitstream/handle/20.500.13053/7864/e064396.full.pdf.jpg?sequence=4&isAllowed=y)
View/ Open
Download
(application/pdf: 370.7Kb)
(application/pdf: 370.7Kb)
Date
2022-10-20Author(s)
Bazo-Alvarez, Juan Carlos
Bazalar-Palacios, Janina
Bazalar, Jahaira
Flores, Elaine C
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
“Objective Describe the occupational characteristics of
farmer and non-farmer workers and investigate critical
occupational risk factors for mental disorders in sugarcane
farmers in Peru.
Method We conducted a cross-sectional study with
occupational health and safety focus among farmers and
non-farmers. Mental disorder symptoms were evaluated
through the local validated version of the 12-Item
General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). We explored the
association between mental disorder symptoms, work
conditions and known occupational risk factors (weekly
working hours, pesticide exposures, heat stress and heavy
workload). Negative binomial regression models were
fitted, and 95% CIs were calculated.
Results We assessed 281 workers between December
2019 and February 2020. One hundred and six (37.7%)
respondents identified themselves as farmworkers. The
mean GHQ-12 scores for farmers and non-farmers were
3.1 and 1.3, respectively. In the fully adjusted multivariable
model, mental disorder symptom counts among farmers
were more than twice as high as those of non-farmers (β:
2.11; 95%CI: 1.48 to 3.01). The heavy workload increased
the mean number of mental disorder symptoms by 68%
(95% CI: 21% to 133%), and each additional working hour
per day increased the mean number of mental disorder
symptoms by 13% (95% CI: 1% to 25%).
Conclusion Farmers have higher mental disorder
symptoms than non-farmers. A heavy workload and more
working hours per day are independently associated with
more mental disorder symptoms. Our findings highlight the
importance of including mental health within occupational
programmes and early interventions tailored to sugarcane
industrial mill workers in the Latin American context.“
Collections
- Web of Science (WOS) [236]