Table 2.

Estimated number and prevalence of farm operators who use respirators by asthma characteristics.

Asthma characteristic	Estimated total population (in thousands)	Respirator use				Respirator use vs. no respirator use
		Distribution %	95% CI*	Proportion of operators using respirators	95% CI*	aPOR*†	Lower CI*	P
Current asthma
Yes	108	6.6	5.6–7.7	46.8	41.0–52.5	1.7	1.4–2.1	<.0001
No	2,019	93.4	92.3–94.4	35.2	34.0–36.4	1.00 (Ref)
Current farm work–related asthma
Yes	16	19.9	13.3–26.6	60.8	48.0–73.6	1.8	1.0–3.5	.07
No	90	80.1	73.4–86.7	44.4	37.9–50.8	1.00 (Ref)
Age of asthma diagnosis§
Age 18 or Less	61	40.3	33.4–47.3	45.2	37.9–52.5	0.8	0.5–1.2	.343
Age 19+	89	59.7	52.7–66.6	45.7	39.4–52.1	1.00 (Ref)
Asthma attack past 12 months
Yes	55	54.7	46.5–62.9	49.8	41.6–58.0	1.3	0.8–2.2	.229
No	53	45.3	37.1–53.5	43.5	35.6–51.5	1.00 (Ref)
Asthma attack past 12 months–at work
Yes	20	43.1	32.1–54.1	57.9	45.3–70.4	1.9	0.9–3.8	.081
No	35	56.9	45.9–67.9	45.3	34.8–55.7	1.00 (Ref)

Note. Numbers in bold show a statistically significant difference between groups where P ≤ .05.

^*CI = confidence interval; aPOR = adjusted prevalence odds ratio.

^†aPOR was adjusted for age, sex, region, farm type, and value of sales.

^§Age of asthma diagnosis includes individuals who do not have current asthma but were diagnosed with asthma in the past.