Factors Affecting the Wheat Farmers’ Safety Behavior in the Central District of the Zanjan Township

The main purpose of this descriptive- correlative research was to investigate factors affecting the wheat farmers’ safety behavior. The statistical population of the research consisted of wheat farmers in the central district of the Zanjan Township (N= 5705). According to the Bartlett et al.’s (2001) table, 254 out of them were selected through multistage sampling method. A research- made questionnaire was used to collect the data. The content and face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts. A pilot study was conducted to establish the reliability of the questionnaire. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the main scales of the questionnaire were at an appropriate level (ranged from 0.701 to 0.838). The results of descriptive statistics showed that the majority of wheat farmers’ safety behavior (95.3 percent) was at a low level. Also, the results of path analysis revealed that four variables, including age (with effect of -0.798), knowledge (with effect of 0.690), literacy level (with effect of 0.536) and attitude (with effect of 0.514) had the highest effects (sum of the direct and indirect effects) on the dependent variable of wheat farmers’ safety behavior. Based on the findings, education and increasing farmers’ knowledge and awareness of issues related to workplace safety and changing their attitudes toward occupational safety can have an important role in improving the wheat farmers’ safety behavior.