There are 'concerning' levels of anxiety among women in UK farming, with financial pressures, long working hours and isolation contributing to growing stress, researchers have warned.
The stresses of balancing childcare, caring responsibilities and non-farming work, and gender inequalities within agriculture could also be exacerbating mental health issues, according to a new study.
A total of 23% of women who took part in the research had anxiety, a further 34.6% were experiencing mild anxiety whilst 42.1% were not suffering from anxiety.
The factors found to have the strongest relationship with moderate and severe anxiety were concerns about the future of the farm; financial pressures; workload, isolation and relationships with family.
The study, published in the Journal of Agromedicine, was carried out by Dr Rebecca Wheeler and Professor Matt Lobley from the University of Exeter and funded by the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institute (RABI).
They surveyed 15,300 members of the agricultural community and the results for this study came from a subsection of nearly 3,500 female respondents.
Dr Wheeler said the study had found 'concerning' levels of anxiety among farming women in the UK, and this should be seen as a call to action.
She said: "There are clear associations between anxiety, stress and loneliness and, although we cannot ascertain causality, these point to issues that demand attention in efforts to improve mental health.”
Professor Lobley added that addressing only the symptoms of mental health problems would be insufficient.
"There is a need to reduce some of the stressors commonly affecting farm women by, for instance, providing greater business-related support and seeking opportunities to help farm women build and maintain stronger social relationships.”
Levels of loneliness were highest among women aged 25 to 34, and markedly higher than equivalent levels in the wider population. This group was also the most likely to be anxious.
Working-aged women appeared more likely to be stressed by feeling isolated, family relationships and workload than older women – all factors that were identified as most strongly associated with moderate/severe anxiety.
Dr Wheeler said: “It is easy to imagine how any confluence of strained family relationships, long working hours, and feeling isolated might be associated with a person also feeling lonely and/or anxious.
"The addition of numerous other common farming stressors – many of which concern factors lying outside the control of individual farmers and farming families – can only add to this burden.”
Younger women were more stressed by financial pressures, and to a lesser extent concerns about the future of the farm/farming, than older women.
Half of those aged between 25 and 44 said they were stressed quite a lot/to a large extent by financial pressures.
There was a statistically significant association between anxiety levels and how often respondents said they felt lonely.
A total of 64.5% of those who were often or always lonely were classified as having moderate/severe anxiety, compared to just 7.4% of those who were never lonely.
