 Associations of occupational attributes and excessive drinkingAndrew J. Barnes and Frederick J. Zimmerman Social Science & Medicine, 2013, vol. 92, issue C, 35-42 Abstract: Numerous work-related drinking mechanisms have been posited and, oftentimes, examined in isolation. We combined data from over 100 occupational attributes into several factors and tested the association of these factors with measures of alcohol use. We used the NLSY79 2006 wave, a U.S. representative sample of 6426 workers ages 41 to 49 and the 2006 Occupational Information Network database (O*NET), a nationally representative sample of nearly 1000 occupations. We conducted exploratory factor analysis on 119 occupational attributes and found three independent workplace characteristics – physical demands, job autonomy, and social engagement – explained the majority of the variation. We then tested the association of these composite attributes with three drinking measures, before and after adjusting for gender, race/ethnicity, and a measure of human capital using count data models. We then stratified by gender and repeated our analyses. Men working in occupations with a one standard deviation higher level of physical demand (e.g. construction) reported a higher number of heavy drinking occasions (+20%, p < 0.05). Job autonomy was not significantly associated with measures of alcohol use and when the combined association of higher levels of physical demand and lower levels of job autonomy was examined, modest support for job strain as a mechanism for work-related alcohol consumption was found. In our pooled sample, working in occupations with one standard deviation higher levels of social engagement was associated with lower numbers of drinking days (−9%, p < 0.05) after adjustment. Physical demand and social engagement were associated with alcohol consumption measures but these relationships varied by workers' gender. Future areas of research should include confirmatory analyses using other waves of O*Net data and replicating the current analysis in other samples of workers. If our results are validated, they suggest male workers in high physical demand occupations could be targets for intervention. Keywords: Occupation; Alcohol; Binge drinking; Excessive drinking; Heavy drinking; Job autonomy; Job demand; Job strain (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:92:y:2013:i:c:p:35-42 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.05.023 Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.