Canadian and Australian farmers have different but equally bad habits.
Researchers speaking Oct. 19 at a Canadian Rural Health Society workshop outlined results of their studies.
Smoking has a detrimental effect on rural Canadians’ health, said Afshin Vafaei.
No other factor was as bad as cigarettes, the Queens University masters student found when crunching the data from a 2005 survey of health.
In an interview after his speech, Vafaei tried to explain the finding.
“Maybe there’s an interaction of smoking and grain dust.”
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He noted that for urban Canadians the most negative impact on their health came from alcohol consumption.
Drinking was also a problem for Australian farmers, said nurse Susan Brumby of Australia’s Western District Health Services. In a recent survey, she found 78 percent of the men and 43 percent of the women said they consumed more than six drinks (four for women) in one sitting at least monthly.
She said the rural Australians “were always surprised that six or more drinks is high risk drinking. They see it as normal.”
Brumby said rural men in Australia are 1.4 times more likely to consume alcohol than their city counterparts.
She also found that like Canadian farmers, there are fewer people in the countryside, the average age is nearing retirement and that rural people have shorter lives and higher levels of illness than their city cousins.
About half of the rural people in her survey were overweight with a tendency to develop diabetes. Alcohol consumption is adding to their calorie load but rural people lack access to fresh fruit and vegetables. Some isolated ranches have to order their food in bulk and store it for months. Also, some ranches have a tradition of morning tea with lots of cakes and sweets.
While smoking is seen as a problem in Canada, rates are lower in Australia. Brumby said restrictions on public smoking mean only eight percent of Australians smoke. However, as with drinking, rural people overindulge. She said 16 percent of the farmers surveyed smoke.
Another issue for the rural Australians was the presence of chronic pain. One man told her that “if I don’t wake up sore, I’m probably dead.” Brumby said the pain is probably a result of the attitude of farmers who are hard working and who won’t take a day off because they feel they are letting others down.
