A methodology for the collection of supplemental information on agricultural fatalities

Due to the lack of a standardized methodology to identify agriculturally related fatalities and the inaccuracy of data from death certificates, NSC's and NIOSH's estimates of the level of agriculturally related fatalities conflict, and the validity of both is subject to criticism. A follow-up survey with the next of kin of 107 potential agricultural fatalities, from a pool of 150 Pennsylvania cases, has been conducted. This paper details the methods and success in gaining supplemental information. Next of kin were generally willing to provide the information (67%), with both telephone (66%) and mail (68%) methods generating comparable levels of cooperation. The optimal time frame for finding current addresses and telephone numbers as well as for gaining cooperation appeared to be about 1 year after the fatality. However, a retrospective investigation of up to 3 years past the anniversary of the fatality produced an acceptable rate of cooperation. How the collected data compares with fatality data for agriculture published by NSC and N1OSH has been addressed in another paper.