Agricultural medicine: the missing component of the Rural Health Movement.

Agricultural medicine encompasses, the anticipation, recognition, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and community health aspects of health problems peculiar to agricultural populations. Members of the agricultural population have been heretofore ignored in organized health efforts unless they happened to also be a member of a social, racial, or economic minority. However, members of the agricultural population encounter daily a variety of occupational and environmental health hazards, such as toxic chemicals and zoonotic infectious agents. The health status of the agricultural subgroup of the rural population is poorer than is commonly believed. For example, compared with other populations, members of this subgroup have excess rates of chronic illness, excess disability from respiratory conditions, and the highest death rate from occupationally related accidents. If a true improvement in the health of the agricultural population is to be realized, then its unique health problems must be recognized, and specific clinical, preventive, and community health aspects of its problems must be dealt with.