Table 3 Assessed likelihood and multivariate odds ratios of pesticide exposure in farm jobs (n = 787) in Western Australia by crop type, employment status, job duration, worker age at job commencement and decade of job commencement
Not exposed to pesticidesPossibly/probably pesticide exposedTotalPossibly/probably pesticide exposedProbably pesticide exposed only
No (%)No(%)OR (95% CI)OR (95% CI)
Farm type
    Animal-only farm200 (89.3)2410.72241.001.00
    Crop-only farm65 (61.3)4138.71065.02 (2.43 to 10.73)5.92 (2.38 to 14.75)
    Mixed crop and livestock farm257 (71.0)10529.03623.01 (1.49 to 6.07)4.86 (2.09 to 11.31)
    Unknown89 (93.7)66.3950.55 (0.20 to 1.51)0.65 (0.20 to 2.13)
Employment status
    Farmers/managers259 (67.5)12532.63841.001.00
    Farm workers342 (87.5)4912.53910.60 (0.34 to 1.03)0.58 (3.19 to 1.06)
    Ill-defined farm jobs10 (83.3)216.7120.78 (0.17 to 3.54)0.51 (0.07 to 3.60)
Job duration (years)
    <2180 (83.7)3516.32151.001.00
    2–9299 (81.9)6618.13651.17 (0.70 to 1.96)2.02 (1.11 to 3.67)
    10–1980 (74.8)2725.21071.37 (0.67 to 2.80)2.55 (1.16 to 5.60)
    20–2930 (53.6)2646.4564.29 (1.85 to 9.95)10.03 (4.16 to 24.22)
    ⩾3022 (50.0)2250.0444.69 (2.05 to 10.75)9.39 (3.85 to 22.93)
Age at job commencement (years)
    <20254 (84.1)4815.93021.001.00
    20–39250 (76.7)7623.33260.74 (0.41 to 1.33)0.69 (0.37 to 1.29)
    40–5977 (68.8)3531.31120.57 (0.19 to 1.75)0.46 (0.14 to 1.50)
    ⩾6030 (63.8)1736.2470.57 (0.13 to 2.49)0.54 (0.11 to 2.61)
Job commencement date
    Before 1950127 (89.4)1510.61421.001.00
    1950s216 (81.8)4818.22642.01 (1.01 to 4.00)2.56 (1.05 to 6.23)
    1960s117 (71.8)4628.21632.97 (1.32 to 6.73)3.51 (1.33 to 9.25)
    1970s59 (76.6)1823.4772.07 (0.68 to 6.33)2.48 (0.68 to 9.00)
    1980s38 (69.1)1730.9556.03 (1.47 to 24.73)9.58 (2.04 to 44.91)
    1990s and after54 (62.8)3237.2868.65 (1.97 to 37.89)15.64 (3.02 to 80.99)