Staying Strong on the Job: Physical and Psychosocial Benefits of Exercise for Agricultural Workers

Roughly 70% agricultural nursery workers report musculoskeletal dysfunction and fall-related injuries. Exercise has been shown to improve musculoskeletal health and fall risk, but the literature on the benefits of exercise in nursery workers is rare. This mixed-methods feasibility study aimed to elucidate the benefits of an employee-sponsored exercise class for nursery workers.

Twenty-five workers were randomized into either the Stay Strong, Stay Healthy (SSSH) resistance training program (n = 14) or control group (n = 11) for 8 weeks. Those assigned to SSSH performed eight exercises twice weekly at their workplace during business hours, while controls were asked to maintain their habits. Pre/post eight-week measures included health, pain, and sleep surveys and functional performance tests of static and dynamic balance, strength, and flexibility. Finally, interviews were conducted pre/post to gauge participants' perceptions of barriers and facilitators for health behaviors such as exercise. Statistical analyses included independent t-tests to assess baseline differences and two-way, mixed repeated measures analyses of variance models to observe interactions and main effects of time and group for all measures, α ≤ 0.05. Inductive thematic analysis was conducted on interview data.

There were no baseline differences between SSSH and controls (all p ≥ .061). Participants were on average 39 years old, had a BMI of 25.5 kg/m², reported poor sleep quality (PSQI 6.2), and 220 min/wk of physical activity. Over time, timed-up-and-go, 5 sit-to-stand, hand grip strength, and lower-body flexibility improved (all p ≤ .019). Post-hoc analyses revealed pre/post-performance changes only in the SSSH group (all p ≤ .035). Further, qualitative interviews suggest that employee-sponsored SSSH programming improved many areas of nursery workers' physical, interpersonal, and psychological health. Specifically, four themes emerged, which included labor-intensive job demands as a barrier to exercise engagement, multidimensional health benefits of SSSH, improved job performance after SSSH, and inspiration and insufficiency of SSSH. For example, those in the SSSH group noted improved personal confidence to complete work-related tasks. Conclusion: Employee-sponsored SSSH improved physical performance associated with falls and injury risk and most participants noted a general enjoyment of and benefits from SSSH pointing to the potential value of it to improve nursery workers' injury risk and health.