This study will conduct a literature review on current knowledge and issues in agricultural health. The literature review will include primarily recent peer-reviewed articles in the academic literature, but will also include other documents such as government reports or information posted on reputable web sites such as those by the 10 CDC-NIOSH Agricultural Safety and Health Centers.

The study will also include email contacts to selected experts in agricultural health. The experts will be identified from the literature review as leading scientists in current agricultural health research. These experts will be asked to respond briefly to an email query in which they are asked for their opinions regarding the most important current agricultural health issues. The experts will be asked their opinions regarding the most important issues that should be addressed in future research, as well as the most important service delivery issues facing rural agricultural populations.

The literature review process will begin with PubMed searches, and will include recent review articles on agricultural health, as well as new empirical research studies. From this initial set of reviews and studies, we will identify additional studies from the reference lists until we reach a saturation point where current knowledge and issues are captured. Websites for current NIOSH Agricultural Health Centers will be examined. Email addresses for leading agricultural health experts will be identified from published papers.

The intent of the data gathering activities is to identify areas for future research, service or technical assistance. The intent is not merely to summarize current research knowledge, but to identify opportunities for future research, but also potentially high priority service needs for HRSA work, or high priority technical assistance activities that HRSA may provide to the rural health care community serving agricultural populations. The final product will be a written report provided to the Office of Rural Health Policy with possible preparation of conference presentations or a journal paper dependent on findings.

Publications

• The Current State of Agricultural Health Research and Practice: Critical Review (Final Report)
  West Virginia Rural Health Research Center
  Date: 09/2013
  The report provides an overview of the present state of agricultural health research for healthcare policy makers and providers.