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Table 2 Factors influencing the mental health of livestock farmers

From: Poor mental health of livestock farmers in Africa: a mixed methods case study from Ghana

Factor

Category

Poor (n = 171)

Good (n = 116)

Percent (%)

Statistical significance

Chi-square

P-value

Age of farmer

Less than 50 years

90

81

59.6

8.487

0.004

50 years and above

81

35

40.4

Sex

Female

15

4

6.6

3.169

0.092a

Male

156

112

93.4

  

Highest level of education

No formal education

56

40

33.4

1.782

0.642a

Basic

81

51

46.0

  

Secondary

24

21

15.7

  

Tertiary

10

4

4.9

  

District

Kwahu Afram Plains

80

62

49.5

1.228

0.268

South

91

54

50.5

  

Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo

     

Marital status

Not married

12

10

7.7

0.251

0.616

Married

159

106

92.3

  

Number in household

10 or fewer members

93

73

57.8

2.070

0.150

More than 10 members

78

43

42.2

  

Number of cattle in herd

50 or fewer cattle

117

88

71.4

1.875

0.171

More than 50 cattle

54

28

28.6

  

Cultivation of crops

No

15

11

9.1

0.042

0.837

Yes

156

105

90.9

  

Raised with farm animals

No

45

42

30.3

3.201

0.074

Yes

126

74

69.7

  

Support availability

No support (≤2 sources)

109

70

62.4

0.340

0.560

Support (> 2 sources)

62

46

37.6

  

Level of attachment

Not attached

24

38

21.6

14.307

< 0.001

Attached

147

78

78.4

  

Self-reported illness status

Not ill

103

94

68.6

13.892

< 0.001

Ill

68

22

31.4

  

Level of livestock loss

No loss (0%)

16

31

16.4

19.556

< 0.001

Low loss (< 10%)

49

32

28.2

  

Moderate loss (10–25%)

68

42

38.3

  

Severe loss (> 25%)

38

11

17.1

  
  1. Numbers (n) of farmers falling into each category of ‘good’ and ‘poor’ mental health, percentage (%) denotes the proportion of farmers with poor mental health within each influencing factor category and their Chi-square and p-value. adenotes Fisher’s exact test probabilities for observations less than 5 persons in each mental health category. Poor and good mental health categories denotes scores of farmers less than and above the study average of 45.7 respectively