Typology of Farmers' Behavior and Attitudes towards Occupational Health in Agriculture, Kermanshah province

All over the world, agriculture is one of the most important and accident-prone jobs in the world. Occupational health behavior is one of the most important factors influencing the occurrence of accidents and diseases caused by agriculture activities. Therefore, the aim of the present study was investigated the typology of farmers' behavior and attitudes towards agriculture occupational health in Kermanshah province, Iran.

This study was conducted through a survey. The population of the study consisted of wheat farmers in Kermanshah province (N = 126,900) that 382 farmers were taken as the research sample (n = 382). The questionnaire was the main tool for data collection. The face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the experts of occupational health, and the reliability was proved through a pilot study to calculate Cronbach’s alpha. The appropriate statistical tests were used to analyze data.

The findings showed that farmers’ attitudes and behavior included four types of attitudes (ecological (11.16), economic (13.79), work-oriented (17.38) and health-oriented (14.29)) and four behavioral patterns (structural (20.73), motivational (8.27), preventive (10.08) and self-centered (14.25)) regarding occupational health in agriculture. Explanation of total variance of attitudes was 53.34% and behavior was 56.64%.

It can be concluded that farmers have different attitudes towards occupational health in the workplace and based on, they show various behavioral patterns in the farms. It can be suggested that those involved in the agricultural and health sectors work together to change attitudes that are contrary to the occupational health of agriculture. It can be recommended that public and private sector support measures can change farmers' behavioral patterns towards structured and preventive behaviors.