Health Screening for Agriculture Producers

The agriculture industry can be a very stressful and physically demanding occupation. That is why it is very important for our agriculture producers to take care of themselves and to receive regular health checkups to ensure that their health and wellbeing is adequate for the job at hand.  

In response to the need for keeping our agriculture producers strong, healthy, and informed, I partnered with local health groups to host free health screens at the monthly cattlemen’s association meeting in the month of May. During this meeting we had representatives from the local Health Department, WKU Raising Hope Team, South Central KY AHEC and WKU Communication Sciences Disorders Team. The group of health professionals did an amazing job as they screened agriculture producers for: hearing, glucose, blood pressure, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, anxiety & depression and gave tetanus vaccines.  

A total of 19 individuals participated in the health screens. The participants varied in age from 29-81. They were mostly from Allen County, and we also had out-of-state participation (one from Sumner County, TN). The screening reports are as follows: Anxiety/depression screening:  5 total screened. All 5 participants had a negative PHQ-2 for depression/anxiety at this time. Blood pressure screening: 16 total screened (normal being 120/80 or less), 3 had normal bp readings. 13 had abnormal readings. >150/80 n=5 (highest reading of 176/102). Glucose: 15 total screened. Many of the participants were not fasting.  The normal (fasting) glucose parameter was 100 or less. 10 had normal glucose levels less than or equal to 100. 5 participants had glucose levels that were considered elevated. 4 participants had glucose levels ranging from 101-150. 1 participant with glucose levels ranging from 151-200. Lipids: 15 total screened. Screenings based on recommendations for most individuals. The highest Total cholesterol reading was 202 (n=1 over the recommendation of 200). The highest LDL that was able to be calculated was 113 (n=2 over the recommendation of 100). The lowest HDL reading was 30 (n=7 under the recommendation of 45 or above). Out of the 15 individuals, only 2 participants were normal in all 5 categories of glucose/TC/HDL/LDL and triglycerides.

This information was very informative and helpful to our producers. Although many of them see a primary care provider regularly, it was a great resource to provide for our agriculture producers to keep them thinking about their health and how important it is to have regular checkups and doctor visits