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A new study published in PubMed looked at the association between workplace absenteeism and alcohol use disorder from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

“The goal of our study was to estimate the relationship between lost work time (missed workdays) and alcohol use disorder among full time workers in the US,” study author Laura Bierut told us. “We used a large nationally representative US database to study this issue.”

Alcohol use disorder leads to significant adverse social consequences, including missed work. Researchers of the study wanted to provide a reliable estimate of the scope of this problem in the US. While people with alcohol use disorder represent 9.3% of full-time workers in the US, they account for over 14% of lost workdays (232 million missed workdays per year).

“Lost economic productivity is a major problem for employers and the US economy,” Bierut told us. “By documenting the scope of this major social cost, we hope to motivate improved prevention and care for alcohol use disorder.” 

Researchers examined a large US nationally representative sample that contains both diagnostic questions for alcohol use disorder in the past 12 months and reported lost work time.

People without alcohol use disorder reported missing an average of 13 workdays in the past year because of illness or injury or skipping work. In contrast, people with mild alcohol use disorder reported missing 17 workdays, while those with moderate alcohol use disorder reported missing 23 workdays, and those with severe alcohol use disorder reporting missing 32 workdays in the past year because of illness, injury, or skipping work. These data show that as alcohol use disorder worsens, there is a step-wise increase in the number of missed workdays.

“What surprised us was that the prevalence of alcohol use disorder was higher among full time workers than in the general population,” Bierut told us. “Once we thought about this, it made sense because alcohol use disorder is more common in the young and in men. The US work force has proportionally more young people and more men compared to the general population.” 

Though researchers hypothesized that there would be more workplace absences associated with alcohol use disorder, they were surprised by how large this effect was.  

The global burden of alcohol use disorder is prevalent. Worldwide, in 2016, alcohol misuse is the seventh-leading factor of premature death and disability. Alcohol consumption in 2016 resulted in three million deaths which is 5.3 per cent of all global deaths. The percentage was higher for men at 7.7 per cent. Deaths of women due to alcohol consumption was 2.6 per cent of total global deaths.

The consequences of alcohol use disorder for families in the US is telling. About 10.5 per cent of 7.5 million children in the US aged 17 and younger live with a parent with alcohol use disorder. In 2019, over 43 per cent of deaths in the US related to liver disease involved alcohol. The percentage was higher for males than females.

“Alcohol use disorder is strongly related to workplace absences,” Bierut told us. “The workplace can be an effective first point of intervention for the prevention and treatment of alcohol use disorder. Employers have a clear economic stake in reducing alcohol use disorder among their employees.”