The Association Between Drought Conditions and Increased Occupational Psychosocial Stress Among U.S. Farmers

Drought represents a globally relevant natural disaster linked to adverse health. But while evidence has shown agricultural communities to be particularly susceptible to drought, there is a limited understanding of how drought may impact occupational stress in farmers.

To address this problem, NIDIS co-funded a study to examine the relationship between drought conditions and measures of job-related stress (e.g., job strain ratio) in farmers. The study, led by Jesse Berman with the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and published in Science of The Total Environment, looked at the association between drought conditions and increasing occupational stress among nearly 500 Midwest farm owners and operators over 2012–2015.