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Are workplace factors associated with employee alcohol use? The WIRUS cross-sectional study
  1. Mikkel Magnus Thørrisen1,2,
  2. Jens Christoffer Skogen3,4,
  3. Tore Bonsaksen5,6,
  4. Lisebet Skeie Skarpaas1,
  5. Randi Wågø Aas1,2
  1. 1Department of Rehabilitation Science and Health Technology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway
  2. 2Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
  3. 3Department of Health Promotion, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway
  4. 4Center for Alcohol & Drug Research, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, Norway
  5. 5Department of Health and Nursing Sciences, Faculty of Social and Health Sciences, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Elverum, Norway
  6. 6Department of Health, Faculty of Health Studies, VID Specialized University, Stavanger, Norway
  1. Correspondence to Dr Mikkel Magnus Thørrisen; mikkel-magnus.thorrisen{at}oslomet.no

Abstract

Objectives Sociodemographic predictors of employee alcohol use are well established in the literature, but knowledge about associations between workplace factors and alcohol use is less explored. The aim of this study was to explore whether workplace factors were associated with employee alcohol use (consumption and alcohol-related problems).

Design Cross-sectional study. Linear and binary logistic regression analyses.

Setting Heterogeneous sample of employees (workers and supervisors) from 22 companies across geographical locations and work divisions in Norway.

Participants Employees (N=5388) responded on survey items measuring workplace factors and alcohol use.

Outcomes Data on alcohol use were collected with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Consumption was measured with the AUDIT-C (the first three items), and alcohol-related problems were operationalised as a sum score of 8 or higher on the full 10-item AUDIT.

Results Higher levels of alcohol consumption were associated with more liberal workplace drinking social norms (b=1.37, p<0.001), working full-time (b=0.18, p<0.001), working from holiday home (b=0.40, p<0.01), being a supervisor (b=0.25, p<0.001), having supervisors with less desired leadership qualities (b=−0.10, p<0.01), shorter working hours (b=−0.03, p<0.05), higher workplace social support (b=0.13, p<0.05) and higher income (b=0.02, p<0.001). Alcohol-related problems were associated with more liberal workplace drinking social norms (OR=3.52, p<0.001) and shorter working hours (OR=0.94, p<0.05).

Conclusions Workplace drinking social norms were the supremely most dominant predictor of both consumption and alcohol-related problems. Results suggest that some workplace factors may play a role in explaining employee alcohol consumption, although the predictive ability of these factors was limited. This study points to the importance of drinking social norms, workplace drinking culture and leadership for understanding employee alcohol use.

  • occupational & industrial medicine
  • public health
  • epidemiology

Data availability statement

Data are available upon reasonable request. De-identified data from the WIRUS screening study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064352

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available upon reasonable request. De-identified data from the WIRUS screening study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors RWA is the principal investigator (PI) and project manager (PM) for the WIRUS Project (Workplace Interventions preventing Risky alcohol Use and Sick leave). This study was designed by MMT and RWA. MMT analysed the data and drafted the manuscript. JCS, TB, LSS, RWA and MMT provided scientific input to the different drafts and provided data interpretation. All authors made critical revisions and provided intellectual content to the manuscript, approved the final version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of this work. RWA is the guarantor of this article.

    • Funding This work was supported by the Norwegian Directorate of Health (grant number: n/a) and the Research Council of Norway (grant number: 260640).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research. Refer to the Methods section for further details.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.