Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

      Injuries to farm children are unique because of the types of tasks involved, the developmental issues regarding the etiology of the injury, and the potentially severe consequences of the injury.  Parents often begin to involve their children in agriculture by assigning them farm maintenance and livestock feeding activities because they are deemed safer than the more complex and hazardous operation of tractors and field equipment or having direct contact with livestock.  These tasks may require children to carry loads that are proportionally large and/or heavy and are often unilaterally loaded.  The nature of these activities may put children at risk for acute injury or may compromise the musculoskeletal development of the child.  Such observations have been made in athletic settings where children exposed to abnormally large loads when pitching have resulted in an increased rate of permanent musculoskeletal injuries including osteochondritis and osteoarthritis.  There are currently no data available to help parents gage the risks associated with these load carriage tasks or to identify appropriate carrying procedures or limits based on the developmental level of their children.  The following research questions are the driving forces behind this proposed project:

1. Does a five-gallon bucket (the container most commonly used in agricultural work settings) inappropriately force children to alter posture to accommodate the dimensions of the bucket?
2. Does this postural adjustment adversely affect loading on upper extremity joints and the spine?
3. Will joint loading be lower using a smaller container (one-gallon) that minimizes postural adjustments?
4. Will joint loading and postural adjustment be decreased when a load is distributed bilaterally in smaller dimension containers (i.e., carrying a bucket in each hand)?

The goal of this project is to investigate potential risk factors for farm children performing occupational carrying tasks to make recommendations regarding the loading (unilateral vs. bilateral) and the container size used for performing these tasks. 

More information about project.

Investigators: Charles Schwab, Steven Freeman, Timothy Derrick, and Jason Gillette

This project is supported by Cooperative Agreement Number RO1-OH04192 from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The contents are solely the responsibility of the investigators and do not necessarily represent the official views of National Institute for Occupational Safety (NIOSH/CDC).

This material was last updated on 12-20-2006