Canadian Farmers’ Mental Health Is Worse Than It Was 5 Years Ago: Study

A farm tractor and baler sit in a hay field on a misty morning near Cremona, Alberta, on Aug. 30, 2016. Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

The pandemic has heightened stress on farmers, who already had a stressful, uncertain profession; Canadian farmers’ mental health has gotten worse than it was five years ago and is worse than the general population in almost every way, according to researchers from the University of Guelph (U of G).

Researchers led by Dr. Andria Jones-Bitton conducted a study on 1,200 farmers between February and May 2021. The study followed up on Jones-Bitton’s previous findings that showed farmers had higher stress levels and mental health issues than the national average.

“There is no sick note for farmers. You don’t get paid if you can’t work,” one farmer said in the questionnaire.

Farmers suffered from stress, anxiety, depression, emotional exhaustion and cynicism (two components of burnout), suicide ideation, and lowered resilience more than the national average.

“The lack of control is very frustrating—lack of control with respect to the weather, input costs, and commodity prices are all very stressful,” another farmer said.

Seventy-six percent of farmers reported that they were experiencing moderate or high levels of stress. Farmers said rising fertilizer and fuel prices and supply chain equipment shortages contributed to their stress.

“Farmers have long faced occupational stressors due to the weather, their workload, and finances,” said Jones-Bitton.

“The pandemic, however, added new stresses such as increased costs, reduced seasonal agricultural farm workers due to travel bans in 2020, and farm processing backlogs due to workers and trucker drivers being ill with COVID-19,” she added.

Women were found to suffer more negative mental health effects than men in every aspect other than alcohol use. Jones-Bitton’s 2015 study showed similar numbers, but they were more pronounced in the latest study, a news article from U of G said.

Further, farmers reported that their alcohol consumption had “increased significantly” since the beginning of the pandemic.

Other coping techniques that farmers used were social withdrawal, sleeping more, changing eating patterns, and self-blame. “These avoidant coping behaviours can set farmers up for other issues down the road,” said Briana Hagen, a post-doctoral researcher at U of G who helped collect and analyze the study data.

The more significant stress falling on women is attributed to role conflict due to women having greater “off-farm responsibilities” like maintaining the household and being the “go-to person” in the family for support.

People battling mental health disorders became more stressed and anxious. LightField Studios/Shuttertock

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Suicidal ideation was twice as high in farmers compared to the regular population in the 2021 study.

Canadians commit an average of around 4,000 suicides annually, 11 per day. One-third of people who commit suicide in Canada are within the 45–59 age group, and men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women. Canadian-born citizens are also three times more likely to commit suicide than immigrants, according to Statistics Canada.

Twenty-five percent of farmers in the 2021 study said their life was not worth living, wished they were dead, or thought about taking their own life within the past 12 months.

The U of G researchers who conducted the study call for stress management training and mental health programming to help Canadian farmers.

“Lack of accessibility to mental health supports and services, mental health stigma in the agricultural community, and a lack of anonymity were among the main reasons that farmers do not seek the support they need,” the U of G news report stated.

“Farming can be an isolating occupation and farmers with poor mental health need to know they are not alone,” Jones-Bitton said.