More broadly, it may be important to intentionally address the role of non-occupational physical activity within groups of people with increasingly mechanized jobs. Study design and population. The Saskatchewan

Farm Injury Cohort Study (SFIC) was developed to understand more about the health of farm populations (Pickett et al., 2008). It involved development of a diverse sample of farms in order to study relationships between individual and contextual factors and health outcomes. The present study was based on baseline data from Phase 2 of the SFIC, which was initiated in January 2013. The sample consisted of 2,849 individuals (2,619 adults) residing and/or working on 1,216 farms from PCI-32765 price 74 different rural municipalities. Participation rates were 93% at the municipality level and 48% at the farm level. A health and operational survey was sent by mail and completed by a single informant on each farm. Information was collected about each farm resident and farm operation. The Dillman total design method for self-administered questionnaires was utilized (Dillman, 2000). Survey procedures were tested via a pilot trial (Day et al., 2008) as described elsewhere (Pickett et al., 2008). Informed consent was indicated by completion and return of the questionnaire. The study was approved by the Behavioural Research Ethics

Board of the University of Saskatchewan. Study variables Overweight and obesity. Respondents reported each participant’s weight (in pounds or kilograms) and height (in feet and inches, or cm) which were used to calculate the body mass index (BMI, kg/m2). BMIs were separated GSK1120212 into non-overweight, overweight, and obese categories using standardized thresholds for adults (< 25, 25-29.9, and ≥ 30 kg/m2) and age/gender specific thresholds for children aged 7 to 17 (Health Canada, 2003; Cole, 2000). Individual-level covariates. For each participant, we obtained their sex (male, female); age which we categorized into four groups (7-19, 20-44, 45-64, ≥ 65 years); relationship to the farm owner-operator (“primary owner-operator”, “spouse”,

“parent”, “child”, because “other relative”); level of formal education completed (“less than high school”, “completed high school”, “completed university”, “technical/community college”); reports of an off-farm occupation (“none”, “part-time”, “full-time”) (Statistics Canada, 2014); and number of reported comorbidities (0, 1, ≥ 2). We also asked about health behaviors: alcohol consumption in the previous year (4 categories: “never” through “more than once a week”) (Statistics Canada, 2013); excessive daytime sleepiness (> 10 on the Epworth Sleepness Scale) (Johns and Hocking, 1997); and current smoking status (“yes” or “no”) (Statistics Canada, 2013). Farm-level covariates. Farm factors considered were estimated total farm acreage (“≤500”, “501-1500”, “1501-2500”, “>2500”); commodities produced (e.