Alcohol-related workplace absenteeism may have been exacerbated during the pandemic
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine have found that people with severe alcoholism miss more than twice the number of working days missed by people without alcoholism.
High alcohol consumption is associated with absenteeism, but the scope of the relationship is not well understood. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine have quantified the scope of the problem, based on survey data from more than 110,000 US adults currently working full-time.
An estimated 9% of full-time US adults (approximately 11 million full-time workers) meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorders. Alcohol use disorders are medical conditions characterized by a diminished ability to stop or control alcohol use, despite adverse effects on social life. , Work life and health.
The findings will be published online on March 17th in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Analysis of the survey data shows that people with severe alcoholism missed 32 days of work each year due to illness, injury, or simply skipping work, and those without alcoholism missed. It was more than twice the number of working days I spent. Overall, workers with alcohol disabilities missed more than 232 million working days a year.
“Alcohol disability is a big problem in the United States, a big problem in many workplaces and a cause of missing many working days,” said Laura J. Bierto, a professor of alumni psychiatry. increase. “The problem may have been exacerbated during the pandemic. Further efforts need to be made to ensure that people receive the support they need to deal with alcohol use disorders. New data is also available. It provides financial incentives for employers and policy makers to tackle this issue. “
Bierut and her colleagues analyzed data collected between 2015 and 2019 through a national survey on substance use and health. The survey, conducted annually by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Department, asks individuals over the age of 12 about their use of alcohol and other drugs over the past 12 months.
Alcohol use disorders are diagnosed using a series of questions. For example, did an individual try to stop drinking but couldn’t, did he spend a considerable amount of time drinking, or did he continue to drink after a memory disorder?
Those surveyed who did not meet the criteria for alcohol disability missed about 13 days of work per year, while those with mild alcohol disability missed about 18 days on average. On the other hand, people with moderate drinking disabilities were absent for nearly 24 days, and those with severe drinking disabilities reported absenteeism for 32 days each year.
“In many cases, those who miss many of their jobs lose their jobs,” said Viert, who is also responsible for the Center for Health Behavior Research at the University of Washington. “But our hope is that the workplace will be the point of contact where intervention can occur. Perhaps when you’re there eight hours a day and your employer begins to notice these difficulties. Instead of dismissing them, they can take action to help the individual recover. “
Researchers have found that people with alcohol disabilities make up about 9.3% of the full-time workforce, while people with drinking problems make up 14.1% of all workplace absenteeism.
Alcohol use disorders were more common among men, young people, people identified as Caucasian or Hispanic, and low-income earners. The analysis included only full-time workers.
As more people work remotely during a pandemic, it can be difficult for employers to spot the problem of excessive absenteeism. Pandemics have changed a lot about how people work and have changed their patterns of alcohol consumption. For example, in the early days of the pandemic, March-September 2020, alcohol sales increased by 20% compared to the same period in 2019. Moreover, according to the latest data, sales have remained at about the same level since then.
“We specifically chose to stop analyzing the data a year before the pandemic began, to give us confidence in our findings,” said the lead author of the psychiatrist. Ian C. Parsley, MD, said. “As more people work at home, the relationships we saw before the pandemic began can change. As people work at home, the amount of alcohol consumed is really just through the roof. Even if we slowly get out of this pandemic, it’s not something we’re trying to solve on its own. “
Bierto said the loss of the routine to go to work was likely contributing to the problem.
“Work has the advantage of giving us structure. You get up in the morning, get dressed, and go to work,” she explained. “But many lost their jobs during the pandemic, others worked at home and lost their structure. They lost the guardrails of certain types of behavior, so if anything, alcoholism disorders. Is likely to have a greater impact on population and workforce than in 2019, and as the findings show, it has had a greater impact on 2019. “
