The association between farming activities, precipitation, and the risk of acute gastrointestinal illness in rural municipalities of Quebec, Canada: a cross-sectional study

Table 1 Comparison of demographic characteristics of respondents living in Quebec rural municipalities with high and low intensive animal farming, Canada, April 2007 to April 2008

Demographic characteristic	n	High intensive farming (%)	n	Low intensive farming (%)	n	Total (%)	p*
Total	3506	50.0	3500	50.0	7006	100
Sex (n = 7006)							0.625
Male	1573	44.9	1550	44.3	3123	44.6
Female	1933	55.1	1950	55.7	3883	55.4
Age (years) (n = 7006)							0.134
0-4	171	4.9	130	3.7	301	4.3
5-9	147	4.2	139	4.0	286	4.1
10-19	344	9.8	373	10.7	717	10.2
20-29	312	8.9	296	8.5	608	8.7
30-39	339	9.7	379	10.8	718	10.2
40-49	596	17.0	558	15.9	1154	16.5
50-59	687	19.6	693	19.8	1380	19.7
60-69	534	15.2	573	16.4	1107	15.8
70-79	265	7.6	265	7.6	530	7.6
≥80	111	3.2	94	2.7	205	2.9
Total household income (n = 6185)							< 0.001
<$20000	470	15.0	398	13.0	868	14.0
≥$20000-<$40000	972	31.0	808	26.5	1780	28.8
≥$40000-<$60000	816	26.1	784	25.7	1600	25.9
≥$60000-<$80000	460	14.7	494	16.2	954	15.4
≥$80000	413	13.2	570	18.7	983	15.9
Education† (n = 6655)							< 0.001
No high school diploma	1153	40.8	884	31.3	2037	36.0
High school diploma	1035	36.6	1068	37.8	2103	37.2
College diploma	341	12.1	406	14.3	747	13.2
University graduate or higher	296	10.5	471	16.6	767	13.6
Cultural group (n = 6910)							0.005
Caucasian	3444	99.6	3419	99.0	6863	99.3
Others	14	0.4	33	1.0	47	0.7
No. individuals‡ in household (n = 7006)							0.305
1	719	20.5	692	19.8	1411	20.1
2	1234	35.2	1295	37.0	2529	36.1
3	557	15.9	526	15.0	1083	15.5
4	618	17.6	642	18.3	1260	18.0
≥5	378	10.8	345	9.9	723	10.3

*Global p-value for each demographic characteristic for the total respondents.
†Distribution of survey respondents for each education level was calculated for those aged > 19 years old.
‡Older than 3 months old.

ISSN: 1471-2458