LAUSR

Introduction Numerous epidemiological studies have been conducted among farmers, but very few of them have included female farmers. Therefore, the health status of female farmers remains understudied. Our aim is to compare the mortality rates and the prevalence of risk behaviours in a cohort of female farmers and female non-farmers in Spain. Methods The cohort study followed 5,919,413 female workers in Spain from 2001 to 2011. Participants aged 20–64 years were employed in 2001. The study subjects were grouped as farmers and non-farmers The prevalence of risk behaviours was calculated from the 2001 National Health Survey for 5573 employed women. For each cause of death, we estimated the age-standardized mortality rates per 1 00 000 person-years of follow-up, the ratio of age-standardized mortality rates with 95% confidence intervals (CI), and for each risk behaviours age-standardized prevalence ratio in female farmers compared female non-farmers. Results The mortality rate ratio of female farmers compared to the female non-farmers was 1.00 (95% CI 0.96–1.05). For most these cause of deaths no significant differences were observed in the mortality rates between both groups, except in mortality from lung cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, transport accidents and suicide, which mortality rate ratios were 0.56 (0.46–0.67), 0.44 (0.23–0.87), 1.47 (1.16–1.86) and 1.41 (1.10–1.81), respectively. The prevalence of smoking and excessive alcohol consumption was lower in female farmers. Discussion We found a decreased in the mortality ratio for tobacco-related cancers. Exposure to psychosocial risk factors could be the reason of higher mortality of external causes of death of Spanish female farmers.