Cardiovascular Disease, Digestive Diseases, Traffic Accidents, and Suicides: Leading Causes of Death Responsible for Excess Mortality in Farmers in Spain.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare mortality from the leading causes of death in farmers and in all other workers. Mortality by cause of death was calculated from a longitudinal study in which 9.5 million men were followed up for 10 years. We estimated the contribution of the causes of death to the difference in all-cause mortality. Most of the excess in all-cause mortality in farmers was due to cardiovascular diseases, digestive diseases, and external causes, which contributed 22.3%, 17.2%, and 53.3% to the difference in all-cause mortality, respectively. Traffic accidents and suicide were the main contributors to the excess mortality from external causes. Farmers are a vulnerable group in terms of health, thus there is a need to identify the factors that influence excess mortality from cardiovascular diseases, digestive diseases, traffic accidents, and suicide.