Alcohol and work Patterns of use, workplace culture and safety

179 Pages·2006·1.36 MB·English

by  Ken Pidd

Alcohol and work
Patterns of use, workplace culture and safety
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is Australia’s national health and welfare
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Please note that as with all statistical reports there is the potential for minor revisions of data
in Alcohol and work: patterns of use, workplace culture and safety over its life. Please refer
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Injury Research and Statistics Series
Number 28
Alcohol and work
Patterns of use, workplace culture and safety
Ken Pidd
Jesia G. Berry
James E. Harrison
Ann M. Roche
Tim R. Driscoll
Rachel S. Newson
June 2006
Prepared for the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing
by the
Research Centre for Injury Studies (RCIS), and the
National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA)
Flinders University, South Australia
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Canberra
AIHW cat. no. INJCAT 82
© Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2006

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no
part may be reproduced without prior written permission from the Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be
directed to the Head, Business Promotion and Media, Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare, GPO Box 570, Canberra ACT 2601.

This publication is part of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s Injury Research
and Statistics Series. A complete list of the Institute’s publications is available from Business
Promotion and Media, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, GPO Box 570, Canberra
ACT 2601, or via the Institute’s web site (http://www.aihw.gov.au). Electronic copies of
publications in this series can be downloaded from the Research Centre for Injury Studies
web site (http://www.nisu.flinders.edu.au)

ISSN 1444-3791
ISBN 1 74024 570 9

Suggested citation
Pidd, K, Berry JG, Harrison JE, Roche AM, Driscoll TR, Newson RS. 2006. Alcohol and
work: patterns of use, workplace culture and safety. Injury Research and Statistics Series
Number 28. (AIHW cat no. INJCAT 82) Adelaide: AIHW
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Board Chair
Hon. Peter Collins, AM, QC

Director
Penny Allbon

Any enquiries about comments or copies of this publication should be directed to:
Dr Ken Pidd
National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA)
Flinders University of South Australia
GPO Box 2100,
Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
email: [email protected]
website: http://www.nceta.flinders.edu.au/

Published by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Printed by Pirion, Canberra
Proofreading and Layout by Stacey Avefua
Contents
Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................vii
List of tables................................................................................................................................viii
List of figures...................................................................................................................................x
Executive summary.......................................................................................................................xi
Overview.................................................................................................................................xi
Report structure and key findings......................................................................................xii
Implications of this work....................................................................................................xvii
Abbreviations..............................................................................................................................xxii
1 Introduction..............................................................................................................................1
2 Alcohol and workplace culture.............................................................................................4
A paradigm shift.......................................................................................................................4
Workplace culture and alcohol use........................................................................................5
Work alienation, work stress, and alcohol use...................................................................10
Workplace alcohol availability, social control, and alcohol use......................................12
Work stress and workplace social control as cultural dimensions of alcohol use........15
Work stress, workplace social control, and workplace culture: An interactional
model of alcohol use.......................................................................................................17
Summary..................................................................................................................................19
3 Prevalence and patterns of alcohol use in the workplace..............................................21
Background.............................................................................................................................21
The current study...................................................................................................................26
Scope.........................................................................................................................................26
Method.....................................................................................................................................27
Measures..................................................................................................................................27
Analyses...................................................................................................................................30
Results......................................................................................................................................32
Discussion................................................................................................................................64
Alcohol and work: patterns of use, workplace culture and safety v
4 Alcohol and workplace safety............................................................................................72
A case study: Aviation safety report 2002/04/328...........................................................72
The physiological effects of alcohol....................................................................................73
Alcohol use and traumatic injury........................................................................................74
Alcohol use and workplace traumatic injuries..................................................................74
Alcohol use and non-fatal workplace injuries...................................................................75
Alcohol use and fatal workplace injuries...........................................................................77
Summary.................................................................................................................................79
5 Assessment of other data sources......................................................................................80
Introduction............................................................................................................................80
Source 1: Hospital Emergency Department data..............................................................80
Source 2: Hospital separations data....................................................................................85
Source 3: National Coroners Information System (NCIS).............................................108
Conclusions..........................................................................................................................113
6 Workplace interventions...................................................................................................114
Alcohol policy......................................................................................................................115
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)...........................................................................116
Testing...................................................................................................................................116
Health promotion................................................................................................................117
Other responses....................................................................................................................118
Summary...............................................................................................................................119
7 Implications.........................................................................................................................121
Concepts and theory...........................................................................................................121
Data and methods................................................................................................................126
Policy and practice...............................................................................................................129
References....................................................................................................................................132
Appendix A..................................................................................................................................145
Appendix B..................................................................................................................................147

vi Alcohol and work: patterns of use, workplace culture and safety
Acknowledgments
This project was funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and
Ageing. Mark Cooper-Stanbury provided valuable technical advice enabling
comparability between this analysis of data from the 2001 National Drug Strategy
Household Survey (NDSHS) and previous work based on this source. Professor David
Steel provided consultation on design effects and clustering in the survey. Dr Tanya
Chikritzhs kindly provided comments on a draft of the section in Chapter 5 on hospital
data. Judith Saebel contributed to the analysis of data for Chapter 3. Chelsea Todd and
Hiroe Terao assisted with the presentation of results. Stacey Avefua assisted with the
editing and layout.
Alcohol and work: patterns of use, workplace culture and safety vii
List of tables
Table 3.1: National Health and Medical Research Council Australian Alcohol
Guidelines........................................................................................................................24
Table 3.2: Age and gender by risk category for employed recent drinkers................................33
Table 3.3: Number of standard drinks consumed daily by gender for employed recent
drinkers............................................................................................................................34
Table 3.4: State and territory location by risk category for employed recent drinkers.............37
Table 3.5: Regional location and gender by risk category for employed recent drinkers.........39
Table 3.6: Industry classification by risk category for employed recent drinkers......................41
Table 3.7: Summary of industry classification by risk category for employed recent
drinkers............................................................................................................................43
Table 3.8: Occupation classification by risk category for employed recent drinkers................44
Table 3.9: Summary of occupation classification by proportions drinking at each risk
category level...................................................................................................................45
Table 3.10: Risk category by work-related alcohol incident and work days missed due to
illness or injury for employed recent drinkers...........................................................47
Table 3.11: Alcohol- and/or drug-related abuse or intimidation in the workplace
experienced by employed recent drinkers, aged 14 years and over........................54
Table 3.12: Attitude by short-term risk category for employed recent drinkers........................61
Table 5.1: Studies reporting the prevalence of positive screens for work-related injury in
Emergency Departments...............................................................................................82
Table 5.2: Alcohol-related conditions and ICD-10-AM code ranges by likely mode of
alcohol involvement and attributable proportion......................................................93
Table 5.3: Additional ICD-10-AM codes for alcohol involvement...............................................95
Table 5.4: Presence of additional ICD-10-AM codes for alcohol involvement in test set of
hospitalised injury cases, Australia 2001–02...............................................................95
Table 5.5: Alcohol attributed cases by type of condition and work-relatedness,
hospitalised injury ages 15–64 years, Australia 2001–02 (standard set of
attributable conditions and proportions)..................................................................100
Table 5.6: Alcohol attributed cases by type of condition and work-relatedness,
hospitalised injury ages 15–64 years, Australia 2001–02: numbers and
proportions for common conditions (standard set of attributable conditions
and proportions)...........................................................................................................101
Table 5.7: Alcohol attributed cases by type of condition and work-relatedness,
hospitalised injury ages 15–64 years, Australia 2001–02 (modified attributable
proportions)...................................................................................................................102
Table 5.8: Alcohol attributed cases by type of condition and work-relatedness,
hospitalised injury ages 15–64 years, Australia 2001–02: numbers and
proportions for common conditions (modified attributable proportions)...........102
viii Alcohol and work: patterns of use, workplace culture and safety
Table 6.1: Strengths and limitations of responses to alcohol-related harm in the
workplace.......................................................................................................................115
Table B1: Age and gender by short-term risk category (including abstainers and low risk
level) for all employed respondents...........................................................................147
Table B2: Age and gender by long-term risk category (including abstainers and low risk
level) for all employed respondents...........................................................................148
Table B3: Age by short-term risk category (with separate risky and high risk levels) for
male employed recent drinkers..................................................................................149
Table B4: Age by short-term risk category (with separate risky and high risk levels) for
female employed recent drinkers...............................................................................150
Table B5: Industry classification by short-term risk category (with separate risky and high
risk levels), for employed recent drinkers.................................................................151
Table B6: Occupation classification by short-term risk category (with separate risky and
high risk levels) for employed recent drinkers.........................................................152
Table B7: Attributable proportions for alcohol, Australia by condition, age group
and sex....................................................................................................................153–155

Alcohol and work: patterns of use, workplace culture and safety ix