https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0379-2798
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Abstract
A cross-sectional study was conducted with 3,291 maize farmers enrolled whose main roles were herbicide applicators and assistant applicators. This study aimed to compare the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) between herbicide applicators and assistant applicators, and determine factors associated with respiratory symptoms. Our results suggest that wheeze and dyspnea were associated with the task on the farm (adj. OR = 10.33 for wheeze and 24.13 for dyspnea), amount of herbicide use (adj. OR = 1.95 for wheeze and 1.41 for dyspnea), frequency of herbicide use (adj. OR = 2.87 for wheeze and 4.08 for dyspnea), not always wearing a mask (adj. OR = 1.49 for wheeze and 3.17 for dyspnea), not always wearing gloves (adj. OR = 2.63 for wheeze and 2.44 for dyspnea), and not always wearing goggles (adj.OR = 2.01 for dyspnea) after adjusting for confounding factors.
Acknowledgments
We wish to express our appreciation to all village health volunteers, health personnel in the Primary and Comprehensive Care Cluster of Long Hospital, and staff of Long District Public Health Office for their kind cooperation. We also offer our thanks to the Research Administration Section, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University for their assistance with the editing of the English language.
Authors’ contributions
Conceptualization, RS, SS, CP, KW, SK; methodology, RS and SS, CP, KW, SK; validation, SS, RS; investigation, SS, RS, data curation, SS, RS; scholarship acquisition, SS, RS; original draft preparation, SS; review and editing of the manuscript, RS, supervision, RS, CP, KW, SK. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
We declare that we have no competing interests.