PREVALANCE OF OCCUPATIONAL HEAT RELATED ILLNESS AMONG CULTIVATED FARMERS IN KHON KAEN

Abstract

The agricultural industry remains the most common sector of employment for workers in Thailand which risk for heat-related illnesses due to Thailand’s tropical climate. Therefore, this cross-sectional descriptive study aimed to establish the prevalence of heat-related illness in farmers of Khon Kaen province. A total of 29 cases were identified by cross-referencing a database of 214,211 farmers registered with the Khon Kaen Provincial Agriculture and Cooperatives Office with the Khon Kaen Provincial Health Office’s database of medical records for heat-related illnesses over the three-year time period from January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2018. The results showed that the three-year prevalence (2016-2018) of heat-related illness among farmers in Khon Kaen province was 13.54 per 100,000. The most common heat-related illnesses were heat exhaustion (48.1%) and heatstroke (24.4%). The patients were most commonly female (75.9%), aged≤51 years old (41.4%), and received medical services outside their registered catchment area (65.5%). The patients were registered as farmers of either rice (93.1%) or cassava (6.9%), typically on small-scale farms (86.2% with planting area less than 100 rai (i.e., less than 16 hectares) and 96.6% producing less than 10 tons per year). Overall, the year-to-year trend of prevalence of heat-related illness among farmers of Khon Kaen province showed a marginal increase.
            In conclusion, heat-related illnesses were identified among farmers. Future research should identify factors associated with heat-related illness among this population and identify ways to include patients not registered as farmers but conducting agricultural work or cases which did not seek medical attention. This information will be useful for surveillance of heat-related illness in the future.