Abstract
The current literature acknowledges that occupational exposures can adversely affect mental health. This review seeks to elucidate the current understanding of the effect of agrichemical exposure on mental health in the agricultural sector, including low-dose, chronic pesticide exposure. This scoping review adopted a snowballing and saturation approach. The review highlights inconsistencies in linking poor mental health and pesticide use. While some studies specifically showed that both high- and low-dose pesticide exposure were associated with poor mental health, consistent and rigorous research methods are lacking. The review also proposes terms to delineate exposure types described in the literature. The review outcomes direct efforts to protect the health, wellbeing and safety of farming communities across the globe.
Highlights
Poor mental health is often driven by mental health disorders, which are a growing concern on the global scale, presenting a 37.6% increase in prevalence in merely two decades
The focus of this review is to explore the potential link between pesticide exposure and development of poor mental health in agricultural workers
This is an important finding for a multitude of reasons, not least that this pattern of exposure may occur on a frequent basis in agricultural workforces, even in those observing current best practice safety and pesticide use techniques
Summary
Poor mental health interferes with an individual’s emotional, social and intellectual capabilities [1,2]. Poor mental health is often driven by mental health disorders, which are a growing concern on the global scale, presenting a 37.6% increase in prevalence in merely two decades (1990–2010) [3,4]. Mental health disorders represent an umbrella term to encompass the various conditions that can impinge on poor mental health. This includes the two main diagnostic categories of mood disorders (such as depression) and anxiety disorders, which are amongst the most highly prevalent mental health disorders globally [5]. Mental health disorders can be transient (state of mood), involve a clinically significant symptom or syndrome that may be identified by scoring tools and, can be a diagnosed disorder under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
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