Exploring longitudinal associations between farmer self-reported psychological and physical job demands, and the welfare of their livestock. The HUNT Study, Norway

INTRODUCTION: High psychological and physical job demands are characteristics of farming and have been associated with symptoms of burnout and impaired health. In the One Welfare framework, human well-being and animal welfare are interconnected. This study explores longitudinal associations between farmer psychological and physical job demands, and the welfare of their livestock. METHODS: Data from the fourth main survey of The Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT4, 2017-2019) was merged with livestock data for sheep, cattle and swine registered at abattoirs. We used three HUNT4 items to measure farmers' psychological job demand, and one item to measure physical job demand. We created a standardised Livestock Index Score based on indicators of livestock welfare from routinely collected abattoir data. We used median quantile regression to explore cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between physical and psychological job demand and the Livestock Index Score. RESULTS: Our analysis sample consisted of 425 farmers. Higher and lower levels of psychological job demand were associated with a more negative development in the Livestock Index Score in the two years after HUNT4 participation, compared to farmers with a median score. We found no significant association between physical job demand and Livestock Index Score. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest a relationship between psychological job demand and livestock welfare. This may enable the generation of new hypotheses and provide a foundation for further research on the interconnection between humans and animals.