Preventing Agricultural Trauma: What Rural Surgeons Should Know About Injury Patterns and Evidence-Based Mitigation

BackgroundMore than half of the global workforce is employed in agriculture-related occupations, and farm-related injuries remain prevalent to rural trauma centers. Agricultural activities have numerous inherent dangers, and this study aimed to describe the characteristics and clinical outcomes of patients with agriculture-related injuries in rural America.MethodsWe performed a retrospective review of adult and pediatric patients with agriculture-related injuries who sought care at a Level II Trauma Center in Wisconsin between 2013 and 2022. Demographic variables as well as primary diagnosis, mechanism of injury, injury severity score (ISS), and hospital length of stay (LOS) were determined. Descriptive statistics were performed, and a P level of .05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsA total of 462 patients met inclusion criteria. The most common mode of injury was blunt force trauma (95%, 441/462). Fifteen percent (67/462) of injuries were animal-related, 34% (157/462) were equipment-related, and 39% (179/462) were fall-related. Median hospital LOS was significantly longer for equipment-related than for animal-related injuries (2 days vs 1 day, respectively; P = .014). Employment status was significantly associated (P = .016) with injury type, with retired individuals experiencing a higher rate of falls (68%, 23/34) when compared with other employment categories (33%-39%).DiscussionThe most common injuries seen were falls and equipment-related, where equipment-related injuries required significantly longer hospital stays than animal-related injuries. Retired individuals experienced a higher rate of falls. These data provide insights into our largely rural population and identified areas of trauma education and prevention efforts regarding equipment safety and fall prevention.