Measuring hazardous work and identifying risk factors for non-fatal injuries among children working in Philippine agriculture

Objectives Global consensus is lacking, especially among developing countries, on whether agricultural work is detrimental to children's health and safety. We aimed to measure the degree to which Philippine children working in agriculture have a higher risk of injury compared with children working in other industries, and to uncover potential risk factors for their non-fatal injuries. Methods Using the Philippine Survey of Children (SOC) 2001, we calculated injury incidence rates and relative risk measures across industries, and employed a multivariate logistic regression on the sample of working children in agriculture to ascertain the association of various exposures with the occurrence of work-related injuries. Results Children working in agriculture had a fivefold risk of non-fatal injury compared to children working in other industries. Logistic regression indicated that the most robust risk factor for the occurrence of non-fatal injury was the use of tools (OR=3.12). Conclusions The results of this study demonstrate agriculture to be a hazardous industry for children. Further research should focus on identifying the most dangerous tools and restricting their use. Am. J. Ind. Med. 56:709-719, 2013. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.