Three Main Types of Physical Fatigue and Their Relationship to Farmwork among Middle-Aged Strawberry Growers during the Harvest Season / Journal of Rural Medicine

ABSTRACT

Objective: Due to the spread of new cultivation methods for strawberries, working conditions have changed in recent years. In addition, the average age of strawberry growers has been increasing. As a result, the need to take new measures to prevent physical fatigue in middle-aged strawberry growers has been increasing. Due to a general paucity of epidemiological studies, we investigated the relationship between physical fatigue and farmwork among middle-aged strawberry growers during the harvest season.Materials and Methods: A mail survey was carried out among 621 healthy Japanese strawberry growers (368 men and 253 women) in January 2003.Results: Lower back pain was the most frequent complaint (71% of males and 67% of females), followed by shoulder pain (45% of males and 59% of females), and eye pain (46% of males and 57% of females). After adjusting for such factors as age, working hours, and sleeping hours using a multiple logistic regression analysis, lower back pain demonstrated the strongest association with the application of gibberellins at bloom among males (odds ratio 2.0) and with the harvesting of strawberries among females (odds ratio 1.8). Shoulder pain had the strongest association with the removal of older leaves among males (odds ratio 1.9) and with the harvesting of strawberries among females (odds ratio 2.2). Eye pain had the strongest association with the clipping of needless runners among males (odds ratio 1.6) and with the application of gibberellins at bloom among females (odds ratio 2.4).Conclusion: Although the three main types of physical fatigue -- lower back pain, shoulder pain, and eye pain -- tended to have a similar prevalence, the related farmwork differed between males and females. Our results therefore suggest that it is necessary to take appropriate measures based on gender differences in order to prevent physical fatigue in middle-aged strawberry growers. Consequently, there is now an urgent need to evaluate ergonomic intervention in a controlled trial.