Mental health of British farmers
Open accessAbstract
Aims:To estimate the prevalence of neurotic symptoms in a sample of British farmers, to investigate whether farming characteristics are associated with psychiatric morbidity, and to test the hypothesis that British farmers have a higher prevalence of depression and thoughts of life not worth living than the British household population. Methods:A total of 425 farmers from Hereford, Norwich, and Preston completed the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R) by computer between March and July 1999. The comparison cohort consisted of 9830 private householders aged 16–64 from the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys National Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys of Great Britain carried out in 1993 in which the CIS-R was administered. All analyses used the commands developed specifically for survey data available in Stata version 6.0. Results:Taking a threshold of an overall score of 12 or more on the CIS-R, only 6% of farmers reported clinically relevant psychiatric morbidity. Psychiatric morbidity was not significantly associated with farm type or size in this study. Farmers reported a lower prevalence of psychiatric morbidity than the general population but were more likely to report thinking that life is not worth living, particularly after the low prevalence of psychiatric morbidity had been taken into account (odds ratio 2.56, 95% CI 1.39 to 4.69). When restricting the comparison to only rural or semirural householders, this increased risk was even more pronounced (odds ratio 3.26, 95% CI 1.51 to 7.02). Conclusions:The relation between depression and suicidal ideation seems to be quite different among farmers and the general population and warrants further investigation. We have shown it is possible to measure mental health systematically in a sample of British farmers. This study should be repeated in the aftermath of the foot and mouth crisis.
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Symptoms of depression in farmers are associated with a 13% increase in sex-adjusted and age-adjusted mortality.
“symptoms of depression are associated with a 13% increase in sex-adjusted and age-adjusted mortality [4–7].”
From Improving the mental health of farmers: what types of remote support are acceptable, feasible, and improve outcomes? A feasibility RCT (2024) · cites this paper as [4]
The Associations between psychiatric morbidity and farming characteristics section reports age- and sex-adjusted comparisons of depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts, not mortality. A search for the claimed 13% increase and for depression-related mortality found no passage in our copy supporting that association. (LLM, conf=0.75)
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- Authors
- Thomas, H. V., Lewis, G., Thomas, D. R., Salmon, R. L., Chalmers, R. M., Coleman, T. J., Kench, S. M., Morgan-Capner, P., Meadows, D., Sillis, M., & Softley, P.
- Affiliations
- Cardiff University (GB)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Public Health Wales (GB)
- Singleton Hospital (GB)
- County Hospital (GB)
- Chorley and South Ribble Hospital (GB)
- Royal Preston Hospital (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Thomas, H V
- Venue
- Occupational and Environmental Medicine
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2003-03
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 181-186
- ISSN
- 0007-1072 (ISSN-L)
- 1351-0711
- 1470-7926
- PMC
- PMC1740492
- OpenAlex
- W1931024319
- Cited by
- 77
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 4.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Occupational and Environmental Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Health and Safety Executive
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Agriculture and Farm Safety
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Keywords
- farmers, mental health, psychiatric morbidity, depression, suicidal ideation, neurotic symptoms, farm type, farm size, rural population, foot-and-mouth disease
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Agricultural Workers' Diseases, Mental Disorders, Depression, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Occupational Diseases, Risk, Suicide, Prevalence, Odds Ratio
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