Prevalence of Alcohol Use Disorder Among Workers

Abstract

Objective: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a common but usually undiagnosed and untreated condition. Persons with the condition tend to maintain their jobs until it severely incapacitates them. The ten years lag between frequent use of alcohol and development of AUD
significantly contributes to this and until organizations actively screen and manage persons with the disorder, it continues to negatively affect productivity. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of AUD in an engineering company and establish a case for employee assistance program (EAP) for the management of AUD.
Method: Staff of the company were systematically sampled and administered a questionnaire which involved the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) questionnaire. A cut off score of 8 was used as a positive screen for AUD.
Results: Thirty-five (9.4%) out of 373 staff screened positive for AUD and half of them were between 31 and 40 years. Men were twice as likely to have AUD compared to females. Muslims were 2.4 times more likely to have AUD compared to Christians and junior
staff were 4 times more likely to be diagnosed with AUD compared to senior staff.
Conclusion: AUD is common among industry workers and therefore human resource policies are necessary for early detection and treatment for improved productivity and employee motivation.