AGING Arthritis pain plagues many older farmers

Increased automation may make younger farmers less susceptible to the threat.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dyan Lombardi can't lift heavy buckets or wear form-fitting work gloves on hands that have been disfigured by years of arthritis.
Still, she manages to run her basil farm in upstate New York with the help of a drip irrigation system that replaced a watering hose and a rolling seat that provides a place to store her tools and to sit down when she tires. A rubber matting covering the stone floor in the greenhouses makes standing easier.
"All three of those things aid me in ways I had not thought about," said Lombardi, who with her husband, Robert, owns Rabbit Creek Farm in Groton, N.Y.
More aches
Agriculture organizations and physical therapists say they are seeing more farmers who are suffering from arthritis and joint problems, ailments that develop after years of milking cows or lugging crates of produce. More farmers are seeking help. Farmers also are getting older as a group -- the average age of a U.S. farmer is up to just over 55 years -- and arthritis is more common among older people.
"A lot of times it's just ignored," said Stephen Swain, who works with farmers who have a disability through Breaking New Ground, an outreach program that operates through Purdue University in Indiana. "It's kind of a hidden disability. An ache and pain is part of who they are and what they do."
He sometimes can spot a farmer with arthritis after a quick glance or a handshake. Usually a hunched walk or a hand with big knuckles or twisted fingers gives it away.
There's no clear picture on how many farmers have joint inflammation that can cause them to lose strength in their hands or suffer from stiffness in their knees. One estimate is that about 1 million of the nation's 3 million farmers have some form of arthritis. The disease strikes one out of three adults in the United States, according to the Arthritis Foundation.
Osteoarthritis is most common and leads to pain and a loss of movement in hips, knees and other joints. Rheumatoid arthritis affects the entire body and is often found in young women.
Lombardi has had rheumatoid arthritis since she was 11 and got into agriculture a few years ago. "It's peaceful and calming," she said.
While the cause of arthritis isn't known, farmers are at a greater risk because of the physical demands of their job.
Easing the pain
Breaking New Ground a year ago published a guidebook offering tips to farming with arthritis. More than 12,000 copies have been handed out. "This is a new area we're focusing on," Swain said.
Researchers at the University of Missouri have been sending a DVD to doctors and farm agencies within the last year to help them teach farmers how to lessen the pain while still working.
Therapists suggest that farmers take more breaks to allow joints to rest and that they try to reduce stress, which can lead to more pain. They also teach farmers how to lift and carry heavy objects in a way that puts less strain on the body by using their strongest joints.
"People think because they're older, arthritis is something they have to live with," said Marilyn Sanford Hargrove, a retired physical therapy professor at Missouri. "They don't seek options that may make it easier as much as we would like."
Hargrove, who grew up on a dairy farm in southwest Missouri, remembered watching her father work in obvious pain. "He just toughed it out. He didn't even take an aspirin at times," she said.
Many times farm operators won't seek help for arthritis unless they have another physical problem that hampers their work, say those who assist disabled farmers.
Adjusting to change
But farmers who do seek help are willing to adjust, said Carla Wilhite, an occupational therapist with the AgrAbility Project in Oklahoma. The program, which extends into 25 other states, assists farmers with disabilities.
"Farmers like to work smart and efficient," she said. "They want to have longevity in farming."
Arthritis, she said, can contribute to other injuries. She has come across ranchers who were injured by livestock because stiffness has made them less mobile. Joint pain can make it riskier to climb onto a tractor or up a silo.
"You fall off because you don't have strength or range of motion, and it leads to something worse," Wilhite said.
Sometimes chronic arthritis that results in joint replacements and back injuries can eventually push some to give up farming. Even if they don't quit, the pain cuts productivity on the farm, Wilhite said.
Don Rager, 69, had to give up his chicken operation and let his son take over the family's dairy farm near Kenton, Ohio, after he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 1976.
Before he had surgery on his feet, it felt as if he was walking on stones. He had trouble getting onto a tractor.
He still helps out by doing book work, driving tractors in the spring and hauling grain to the elevator in the fall. "You do what you can," Rager said. "You have to know your limitations."
There is hope that younger farmers will be less susceptible to arthritis than the older generations.
New tractors and combines now have hand controls in armrests that eliminate reaching to shift gears and come equipped with mechanical suspensions and ergonomic seats that reduce bouncing.
Fewer farmers are feeding animals by hand, and there is more automation, such as conveyors that move milking equipment, that reduces heavy lifting.
"I don't think you're going to see as much problems because there's less manual labor," Swain said. "The physical work isn't as great as it was for old farmers."