A team of researchers from the University of Liverpool (United Kingdom) has concluded in their study published in the journal BMC Public Health that working in certain occupations may be associated with a greater probability of binge drinking, specifically in people aged 40 to 69 years . The findings could be used to help target public health or work-based interventions with the goal of reducing binge drinking, according to the authors.
What jobs are most associated with higher alcohol consumption?
Those professions classified as commercial occupations, such as construction and manufacturing jobs, were more likely to be associated with binge drinking. Thus, in the study of more than 100,000 Britons (100,817 participants to be exact), the occupations associated with the highest rates of binge drinking in the UK were general pub and venue managers, sports and leisure assistants, builders and industrial cleaning process occupations, including industrial premises cleaners.
Occupations associated with the lowest rates of binge drinking were jobs related to teaching, clergy, physicists, geologists and meteorologists, and physicians.
“Excessive alcohol use increases the risk of physical and mental harm, and by understanding which occupations are associated with binge drinking, we can better target resources and interventions. Our research provides information for policy makers and employers on which sectors may have the highest rates of binge drinking, “explains Andrew Thompson, research associate at the Institute of Translational Medicine and leader of the paper.
The participants had to periodically declare the amount of alcohol they ingested from 2006 to 2010, indicating the units of alcohol ingested ( 10 ml of pure alcohol = 1 unit of alcohol ). They also collected demographic data from each of the participants for further analysis of the data.
Excessive alcohol consumption was stipulated at more than 35 units per week in the case of women and more than 50 in the case of men. Almost a tenth of the participants (17,907) exceeded the standards and were classified as habitual drinkers.
77 of the studies showed a strong relationship with alcohol consumption and 51 of them found high levels of habitual drinkers.
“The data are complemented by others obtained from the 1890s, in which people who work routinely and directly with alcohol, such as bar staff, show the highest rates of mortality related to this substance. The same is seen at the opposite end of the range, where members of the clergy have consistently shown low rates of related mortality. These results show how the occupational environment, which may include specific social and religious beliefs, influences alcohol-related mortality ”, the study affects.
It should be clarified, however, that the study did not find causality in this profession-alcohol relationship.
Referencia: Thompson, A., Pirmohamed, M. Associations between occupation and heavy alcohol consumption in UK adults aged 40–69 years: a cross-sectional study using the UK Biobank. BMC Public Health 21, 190 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10208-x
