A National Overview of Youth and Injury Trends on U.S. Farms, 2001-2014

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted injury surveillance for youth on U.S. farms for two decades to measure childhood injury burden, track injury trends, and monitor hazardous injury exposures. The Childhood Agricultural Injury Survey (CAIS), a regionally stratified telephone survey, collected injury and demographic data for all youth less than 20 years of age on U.S. farms. Results from the 2014 survey are provided. Trend analyses for all survey years were conducted using a Poisson regression model with generalized estimating equations. Rate ratios with corresponding 95% confidence intervals were calculated from the model. In 2014, there were an estimated 11,942 youth farm injuries. Of these, 63% occurred to household youth. Youth between the ages of 10 and 15 incurred the most injuries, and 34% of the injuries were work-related. The total number of injuries to all youth on farms consistently declined during the 14-year period from 2001 to 2014, with annual injury rates ranging from 13.5 to 5.7 per 1,000 farms. The injury rates for household youth decreased through 2009 but increased slightly in 2012 and 2014. Farms continue to be hazardous environments for youth. Although there has been a significant decrease in the overall numbers and rates of youth farm injuries over the past decades, researchers should continue to monitor areas that remain a concern. One area that is specifically troublesome is the increase in injury rates observed for household youth in 2014.