Prevalance of occupational heat related illness among farmers

Abstract

          Farmers have many problems about occupational health disease.It was found that the number of patients with heat
illness, if classified by occupation in Thailand, will be found that the most of patient was a farmer and vegetable grower and
the rice growers. The objective of this article was to study the prevalence of heat related illness in agriculture. A Cross-sectional
descriptive study design includes 225,901 farmers which registered to Khon Kaen Provincial Agriculture And Cooperatives Office
and admitted to the hospital in Khon Kaen province between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2018 followed the inclusion
criteria.
          Then, the outcomes showed that the three years prevalence (2016-2018) of heat related illness in Khon Kaen province farmers were 12.8375 per ten thousand people. Mainly heat related illness disease was Heat fatigue, transient and Heatstroke.
Mueng Khon Kean district had heat related illness patient every year. Most of patients was female, age more than 51 years old,
admitted in the hospital apart from the house particular. Most of them was rice or cassava farmer, planting area less than 100
raits (16,000 square meters) and 100 percent had productivity less than 10 tons/year. The prevalence of heat related illness was
increase on the same pace as average maximum temperature of Khon Kaen province.
          The conclusion is the prevalence of heat related illness in farmer have been increasing since 2016 according to the
temperature of the world. Next article should include research on risk metrics for heat risk assessment on heat related illness
among farmers will be useful for assessment to surveillance in the future.