Abstract
Objective
This study has arisen in response to a lack of studies examining how farming affects mortality patterns across areas of Northern Ireland (NI) over a 10-year period. This paper aims to investigate whether agriculturally intensive electoral Wards have higher mortality rates compared to non-agriculturally based Wards, controlling for relevant factors.
Methods
The population census and farm census information was downloaded from the Northern Ireland Neighbourhood Service (NINIS) website to construct two original mortality-based datasets. Linear regression was used for the analysis.
Design
Decennial Ward-Level Influence of Demographic, Farming, and Economic Predictors on All-Cause Mortality.
Setting
Five hundred and eighty-two Ward areas of Northern Ireland.
Main Outcome Measure
Mortality risk within Ward areas.
Results
Findings showed larger amounts of natural log of the population, 65 to 100+ year-olds, limiting long-term illnesses, Farming Intensity Scores, residents living alone and full-time workers within Wards were predictive of mortality risk within those Wards.
Conclusions
This study is the first of its kind in NI to provide evidence for Farming Intensity Scores explaining the variation of mortality rates between areas, in addition to many of the usual predictors.
This study has arisen in response to a lack of studies examining how farming affects mortality patterns across areas of Northern Ireland (NI) over a 10-year period. This paper aims to investigate whether agriculturally intensive electoral Wards have higher mortality rates compared to non-agriculturally based Wards, controlling for relevant factors.
Methods
The population census and farm census information was downloaded from the Northern Ireland Neighbourhood Service (NINIS) website to construct two original mortality-based datasets. Linear regression was used for the analysis.
Design
Decennial Ward-Level Influence of Demographic, Farming, and Economic Predictors on All-Cause Mortality.
Setting
Five hundred and eighty-two Ward areas of Northern Ireland.
Main Outcome Measure
Mortality risk within Ward areas.
Results
Findings showed larger amounts of natural log of the population, 65 to 100+ year-olds, limiting long-term illnesses, Farming Intensity Scores, residents living alone and full-time workers within Wards were predictive of mortality risk within those Wards.
Conclusions
This study is the first of its kind in NI to provide evidence for Farming Intensity Scores explaining the variation of mortality rates between areas, in addition to many of the usual predictors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e70016 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-8 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Australian Journal of Rural Health |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 24 Feb 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 28 Feb 2025 |
Bibliographical note
© 2025 The Author(s). Australian Journal of Rural Health published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of National Rural Health Alliance Ltd.Data Access Statement
This data were publicly available and ethical approval was granted by Ulster University Research Ethics Committee in January 2019 (Reference ID: B00573168).Keywords
- aggregated ward data
- mortality patterns
- regression analysis
- NINIS data
- farming intensity scores
- Demography
- Humans
- Middle Aged
- Male
- Infant
- Mortality/trends
- Socioeconomic Factors
- Young Adult
- Adolescent
- Censuses
- Aged, 80 and over
- Female
- Adult
- Aged
- Agriculture
- Northern Ireland/epidemiology
- Mortality - trends
- Northern Ireland - epidemiology
