Evaluation of Self-Reported Agricultural Tasks, Safety Concerns, and Health and Safety Behaviors of Young Adults in U.S. Collegiate Agricultural Programs.

Young adults enrolled in collegiate agricultural programs are a critical audience for agricultural health and safety training. Understanding the farm tasks that young adults engage in is necessary for tailoring health and safety education. The project analyzed evaluation survey responses from the Gear Up for Ag Health and Safety ^™ program, including reported agricultural tasks, safety concerns, frequency of discussing health and safety concerns with healthcare providers, safety behaviors, and future career plans. The most common tasks reported included operation of machinery and grain-handling. Most participants intended to work on a family-owned agricultural operation or for an agribusiness/cooperative following graduation. Reported safety behaviors (hearing protection, eye protection, and sunscreen use when performing outdoor tasks) differed by gender and education type. Male community college and university participants reported higher rates of "near-misses" and crashes when operating equipment on the roadway. One-third of participants reported discussing agricultural health and safety issues with their medical provider, while 72% were concerned about the health and safety of their family and co-workers in agriculture. These findings provide guidance for better development of agricultural health and safety programs addressing this population-future trainings should be uniquely tailored, accounting for gender and educational differences.
Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: Authors K.W., J.L.G., D.S., and C.S. perform work for the Ag Health and Safety Alliance™, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the U.S. and Canada that focuses on health and safety for the next generation of agriculture through the delivery of the Gear Up for Ag Health and Safety™ program. This 2–5 h program targets students enrolled in agricultural production programs in the collegiate environment and operates through established partnerships with host institutions. The grant funding for this research was used for solely for the evaluation of this ongoing community education program. Authors K.W., J.L.G., D.S., and C.S. acknowledge that the research findings from the Gear Up for Ag™ training program is intended to serve as an example for other similar health and safety training programs—and that these findings are not intended to solely to benefit the Gear Up for Ag™ training program. The authors believe the findings from this example may be applicable to multiple other programs.