The Canadian Agricultural Injury Surveillance Program: a new injury control initiative

The Canadian Agricultural Injury Surveillance Program (CAISP) is a national system, established in 1996, for monitoring injuries among the agricultural community. The program involves ongoing collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of injury data. These data are an important tool for the development and evaluation of Canadian farm safety programs. The ultimate goal of the program is to enhance the health and safety of Canadian farm workers and their families through preventive measures based upon a better understanding of the occurrence of farm injuries. This report provides a brief history of the surveillance system; a description of the program in terms of its objectives and the methods used for case identification and data collection; an overview of products from the initiative; and a discussion of some of the challenges encountered in developing a national surveillance system.