Perceptions and behaviors of primary care physicians regarding farmers' occupational exposures and health

Back ground: Agricultural work re mains one of the most haz ard ous occupations interms of in jury and ill nesses. It is not well known, how ever, to what ex tent phy si cians whocarefor farm ers are aware of these risks, or if they per form ad di tional medical sur veil lance or coun sel ing spe cif i cally for their farm ing pa tients. Methods: At a se ries of re cent medical con fer ences, 209 phy si cians completed ques tion naires con cern ing farm health issues and per sonal medical practice be hav iors. Results: Given a se ries of diseases knownto be associated with farming and asked to compare prev a lence rates be tweentheir farm ing patients and their other work ing pa tients, the re spon dents rated only skin diseases as be ing more prev a lent among farm ers. Risk per cep tion increased with per sonal farm experience and num ber of farm ing pa tientsseen. Con clu sions: Some primary care phy si cians, particularly those with a lim ited knowl edge of farm ing as an occupation, may un der es ti mate the health risks associated with agricultural ex po sures.