WEST FARGO -- For some people who live in rural areas or busy farmers and ranchers who rarely have the opportunity to leave their life's work, free health and hearing screenings offered at the annual Big Iron Farm and Construction Show here may be their only annual checkup.
Jayme Steig, an assistant professor of practice at the North Dakota State University School of Pharmacy, said free health screenings have been offered at Big Iron for nearly 20 years.
"So this isn't just a recent thing," he said.
Those in the agricultural industry are less likely than others to seek out regular health care.
The Journal of Rural Health reported that farmers are nearly 47% less likely than non-farmers to keep up with recommended screenings or even have a regular doctor.
A 2020 advisory by the American Heart Association found that people living in remote rural areas have higher rates of health risk factors such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. And heart disease rates are 40% higher in rural areas, according to 2017 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
The University of North Dakota Medical School reports that only six of North Dakota's 53 counties have an adequate number of health care workers, based on a study by the Rural Health Information Hub . In addition, 12 of 39 rural hospitals in North Dakota are at risk of closing as of April 2025.
Steig said rural residents who would be willing to receive regular care don't necessarily have access to medical care.
"One of the big reasons why (we offer screenings at Big Iron) is that access to health care in the rural areas is challenging," Steig said. "Some of the people that come through here -- this is my fourth year in a row doing this, representing NDSU, and we see the same faces -- we are their checkup every year."
For others, some people might have had a checkup six months ago, then made some changes to improve their health, and the screenings can provide a better gauge for those individuals, he said.
"It provides an accessible point to see how their health is doing," Steig said.
The free health screenings included tests for blood pressure, blood sugar, and stroke risk. For $15 to $20, attendees could request additional screenings of hemoglobin A1c and a total cholesterol panel.
Along with the health screenings, attendees could also receive free hearing tests from the Minnesota State University Moorhead speech, language and pathology department.
"Part of our scope of practice is prevention," said Nancy Paul, an MSUM professor of the speech, language and pathology program. "There is a lot of noise exposure in the ag industry, so we try to get early identification (of any hearing problems)."
For those who received hearing screenings, Paul, along with first-year graduate students Jacy Knoblauch and Greta Olson, offered recommendations for next steps to those who did not pass, and they also offered recommendations for how and when to receive regular hearing checkups to prevent future problems.
Paul and Steig estimated that between 200 and 300 people received health and hearing screenings during the Big Iron show, which ran Tuesday, Sept. 9, through Thursday, Sept. 11.
The Fargo Moorhead Sertoma Club donated the booth and equipment used by the MSUM staff for the hearing screening, and North Dakota Living magazine and the ND Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives helped sponsor the health screenings throughout the Big Iron show.
"It would not be possible without them and all the other organizations that provide screenings in that space, like the hearing screenings and the Essentia Health heart and stroke team," Steig said.