Non-fatal Animal-Related Farm Injuries to Youth in the United States - 1998

Objective: To provide data on the magnitude of animal-related farm injuries to youth in the United States. Data Source: A youth farm injury survey of 26,000 farm households conducted for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1998. Subjects: Youth less than 20 years of age. Results: There were an estimated 6438 animal-related farm injuries to youth less than 20 years in 1998 (injury rate = 1.7/100 farms). Seventy percent of the injuries occurred to youth farm residents. Sixty-nine percent of animal-related farm injuries were work related. Males accounted for 64% of the animal-related farm injuries. Approximately 41% of the injuries occurred to youth under the age of 10. Thirty-seven percent of the injuries involved horses, and 31% involved cattle. The remainder of the cases either involved some other animal or the animal was not specified. While the majority of horse-related injuries occurred to females, the majority of the cattle-related injuries were to males. Conclusions: Results from this study show that one out of every five youth farm injuries in the U.S. is animal-related. These animal-related injuries were due to both work and nonwork-related exposures, although a higher proportion of the injuries were work-related. Because youth farm residents accounted for the majority of the farm animal-related injuries, they should be the focus of any intervention strategies. Further research is needed to better understand existing risk factors for animal-related injuries to youth on farms.