Incidence and Cost of Injury Among Youth in Agricultural Settings, United States, 2001–2006

Zaloshnja E et al. – The authors found that, similarly to adult agricultural injuries, youth agricultural injuries tend to be more severe and more costly than nonagricultural injuries. Only 1.4% of injured youth in the United States were hospitalized in 2000, but 14% of youth injured in agriculture were hospitalized in 2001–2006.

Methods

• The authors used 2001–2006 Childhood Agricultural Injury Survey data to estimate the incidence of nonfatal injury and 2001–2006 Multiple Cause of Death data to estimate the incidence of fatal injury.
• To estimate the costs for injuries suffered by youth working/living in agricultural settings, they multiplied the number of injuries times published unit costs by body part, nature of injury, and age group.

Results

• An average of 26655 agricultural injury incidents occurred annually to youth (ages 0–19) in the United States during the period 2001–2006 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 24263–29046).
• These injuries cost society an estimated $1.423 billion per year in 2005 dollars (95% CI: $1.333 billion–$1.513 billion).
• Fatalities alone cost an estimated $420 million per year.
• Work related injuries annually cost $347 million or 24.4% of the total cost (95% CI: 20.3%–28.5%).
• Most agricultural youth injuries were not work related.

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