Factors associated with work accidents in a rural area in Minas Gerais, Brazil

Noise and pesticide exposure is frequent among Brazilian agricultural workers, however, few studies analyzed its association with work accidents.

To investigate the association between self-reported noise and pesticide exposure and self-reported work accidents among rural workers.

Cross-sectional study performed in Conceição das Pedras, southern Minas Gerais, Brazil. We administered a questionnaire to 170 rural workers from April through October 2014. We subjected the data to unconditional multiple logistic regression analysis by means of the stepwise method.

The prevalence of work accidents was 11.8% (95%CI 7.3-17.6). Independent variables associated with occurrence of work accidents were: use of the fungicide Priori^® (OR 11.8; p=0.007), use of hand-held power tools (OR 8.28; p=0.010), noise-induced hearing loss (OR 38.60; p=0.022) and length in the job (OR 1.04; p=0.034).

We did not find association between work accidents and self-reported combined noise and pesticide exposure. The results, however, evidenced factors significantly related to the occurrence of work accidents, which identification might serve to ground preventive actions. We recommend performing additional studies likely to overcome detected limitations to establish the role of combined exposures in work accidents.