• In U.S., alcohol use disorder linked to

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Thu Mar 17 22:30:44 2022
    In U.S., alcohol use disorder linked to 232 million missed workdays
    annually
    Workplace absenteeism related to alcohol likely worsened during pandemic


    Date:
    March 17, 2022
    Source:
    Washington University School of Medicine
    Summary:
    Researchers have found that people with severe alcohol use disorder
    miss more than double the number of workdays missed by individuals
    without alcohol use disorder.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Heavy alcohol use is associated with missing work, but the scope of that relationship has not been well understood. Now, based on survey data
    from more than 110,000 U.S. adults with full-time jobs, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have quantified
    the extent of the problem.


    ========================================================================== Among U.S. adults working full time, an estimated 9% -- almost 11
    million full- time workers -- met the diagnostic criteria for alcohol
    use disorder, a medical condition characterized by an impaired ability
    to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse consequences in one's
    social life, work life or health.

    The findings are published online March 17 in the journal JAMA Network
    Open.

    Analyzing the survey data, the researchers found that people with severe alcohol use disorder reported missing 32 days of work each year because
    of illness, injury or simply skipping work, more than double the number
    of workdays missed by individuals without alcohol use disorder. In all,
    workers with alcohol use disorder missed more than 232 million work
    days annually.

    "Alcohol use disorder is a major problem in the United States and a big
    problem in many workplaces, where it contributes to a significant number
    of workdays missed," said senior investigator Laura J. Bierut, MD, the
    Alumni Endowed Professor of Psychiatry. "The problem likely has worsened
    during the pandemic, and we need to try to do more to ensure that people
    can get the help they need to deal with alcohol use disorder. The new
    data also point to an economic incentive for employers and policymakers
    to address the issue." Bierut and her colleagues analyzed data gathered
    from 2015 through 2019 via the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The survey is administered every year by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which asks individuals over age 12 about their
    use of alcohol and other drugs over the previous 12 months.



    ========================================================================== Alcohol use disorder is diagnosed using a series of questions -- such
    as whether an individual tried to stop drinking but couldn't, spent a
    great deal of time sick from drinking, or continued to drink even after
    having a memory blackout.

    Those surveyed who did not meet criteria for alcohol use disorder missed
    about 13 days of work annually, but individuals with mild alcohol use
    disorder missed an average of almost 18 days. Meanwhile, those with
    moderate alcohol use disorder missed nearly 24 days, and those with
    severe alcohol use disorder reported missing 32 days of work each year.

    "Often, people who miss that much work lose their jobs," said Bierut,
    who also directs the Washington University Health & Behavior Research
    Center. "But our hope is that the workplace might be a point of contact
    where intervention can occur. You're there eight hours a day, and when
    an employer begins seeing these difficulties, perhaps instead of firing a person, they could take action to assist with that individual's recovery."
    The researchers found that although people with alcohol use disorder represented about 9.3% of the full-time workforce, those with drinking
    problems accounted for 14.1% of total workplace absences.

    Alcohol use disorder was more common among men, younger people, those
    who identified as white or Hispanic and those with lower incomes. The
    analysis included only full-time workers.



    ==========================================================================
    With more people working remotely during the pandemic, problems with
    excessive absence may be harder for employers to spot. The pandemic
    changed many things about how people work, and it also changed alcohol consumption patterns. For example, in the early days of the pandemic,
    from March through September 2020, alcohol sales increased by 20%
    compared with the same period in 2019. Further, the latest data indicate
    that sales have remained at about that level ever since.

    "We specifically chose to stop our data analysis the year before the
    pandemic began so that we could be more confident in our findings," said
    first author Ian C. Parsley, MD, a psychiatry resident. "Having more
    people working at home could change the associations we saw before the
    pandemic began. The amount of alcohol consumed since people have been
    working from home more has really just gone through the roof. That's
    not something that's just going to resolve itself, even as we slowly
    come out of this pandemic." Bierut said it's likely that the loss of
    the routine of going to a job has contributed to problems.

    "Work has the benefit of giving us structure: You get up in the morning,
    get dressed, go to work," she explained. "But many people lost their
    jobs during the pandemic while others worked at home and lost that
    structure. We've lost our guardrails for certain types of behaviors,
    so if anything, I think it's likely alcohol use disorder is having a
    greater impact on the population and on the workforce than it did in
    2019. And as our findings show, it was having a big impact in 2019."
    Parsley IC, Dale AM, Fisher SL, Mintz CM, Hartz SM, Evanoff BA, Bierut LJ.

    Workplace absenteeism associated with alcohol use disorder from the
    National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2015-2019. JAMA Network Open,
    March 17, 2022.

    This work is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
    the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute
    on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health
    (NIH). Grant number K12 DA041449, R34 DA050044-01, R25 MH112473 and U10 AA008401. Additional funding comes from a Substance Abuse and Mental
    Health Services Administration grant H79TI082566.


    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
    Washington_University_School_of_Medicine. Original written by Jim
    Dryden. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Ian C. Parsley, Ann Marie Dale, Sherri L. Fisher, Carrie M. Mintz,
    Sarah
    M. Hartz, Bradley A. Evanoff, Laura J. Bierut. Association Between
    Workplace Absenteeism and Alcohol Use Disorder From the National
    Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2015-2019. JAMA Network Open, 2022;
    5 (3): e222954 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.2954 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220317111925.htm

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