Depression and anxiety symptoms in male and female farmers: association with farm characteristics and mental health protection strategies in the FarmCoSwiss cohort

Empirical research on farmers’ mental health in Switzerland is limited. This study uses cross-sectional data from the first follow-up of the FarmCoSwiss cohort to descriptively compare depression and anxiety symptom prevalence between Swiss farmers and the Swiss general population. Furthermore, the association of these mental health outcomes with farm-related characteristics and individual-based mental health protection strategies was explored. Of 878 adult baseline participants, 600 (68%, thereof 67% men) completed the follow-up survey between March and June 2024. Depression and anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scales, respectively. Sum scores (0–27 and 0–21) were categorized as no/minimal, mild, moderate, or (moderately) severe symptoms for descriptive analyses. Key explanatory variables included five binary farm-related characteristics (farming system: non-organic or organic; production system: animal husbandry/mixed or no animal husbandry; farm size: ≤50 or > 50 hectares; label production: yes or no; management position: yes or no), and a binary indicator of the use of one or more individual-based mental health protection strategies (any or none). Depression and anxiety prevalences were descriptively compared to 2022 data from the Swiss Health Survey. Sex-stratified negative binomial regressions assessed associations between PHQ-9 and GAD-7 continuous sum scores and explanatory variables, adjusted for age, education, marital status, and season of participation. Over half of the participants (52.3%) reported no depression and anxiety symptoms. Moderate or severe symptoms were observed in 10.7% (depression) and 9.5% (anxiety). Descriptive comparisons to the Swiss general population suggest that depression and anxiety symptoms are slightly more common among FarmCoSwiss participants. Women generally reported higher symptom prevalence. In men only, the use of any mental health protection strategy was associated with lower PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores. While comparisons between two distinct study populations should be interpreted with caution, our findings suggest that depression and anxiety symptoms may be more prevalent among the Swiss farming population, particularly among women, than in the general population. Individual-based mental health protection strategies show promise for improving farmers’ mental health, but our results indicate a need for sex-specific strategies. Further longitudinal research on additional farm- and sex-specific factors affecting mental health in Swiss agriculture may be of interest.