Drug Use Among U.S. Workers:   Prevalence & Trends by Occupation and Industry

Chapter 7:   Absence from Work and Illicit Drug and Heavy Alcohol Use

As indicated in chapter one, one cannot make causal attributions based on NHSDA data. Nevertheless, there are a number of interesting hypotheses that can be tested with these data. For example, the hypothesis guiding this chapter is that drug users are more likely to skip work and be absent due to illness or injury than workers who do not use drugs. Since skipping work and missing work due to illness or injury are relatively rare events, many of the estimates that might have been presented in the following tables were suppressed due to low precision. Therefore, the tables present only a select number of occupation and industry categories. The reader is cautioned that since there is such uncertainty in this analysis, additional research is needed before any conclusions can be made about the association between drug use and absence from work.

7.1 Skipping Work by Current Illicit Drug and Heavy Alcohol Users

The first set of results bearing on the hypothesis mentioned above provides estimates about whether full-time workers in several occupation and industry categories, ages 18-49, had skipped work in the previous 30 days by whether or not they were current illicit drug or heavy alcohol users.

Table 7.1 and table 7.2 offer modest support for the notion that current illicit drug and heavy alcohol users tend to skip work more often than others. Overall and among Food Preparation and Servers, Handlers and Helpers (Table 7.1), Eating and Drinking Places, and Transportation (Table 7.2), current illicit drug users reported skipping work at least one day about twice as often as those who had not used an illicit drug in the past month. This finding received less support when viewing heavy alcohol use; the only significant difference that could be detected occurred among the total sample. In fact, in most occupations and industries there appeared to be little difference in the percent skipping work by reported heavy alcohol use.

7.2 Absence from Work Due to Illness or Injury by Current Illicit Drug and Heavy Alcohol Users

Table 7.3 and table 7.4 offer little support for the view that worker absence due to illness or injury is associated with current illicit drug or heavy alcohol use. Although the overall percentages indicate that current illicit drug users were significantly more likely to report being absent in the past 30 days for two or more days than non-users, the specific occupations show little differentiation. However, a slightly larger percentage of workers in the Construction and Eating and Drinking industries (Table 7.4) who reported current illicit drug use also reported missing two or more days due to illness or injury, but the differences were not large enough to meet the criteria for statistical significance.

Table 7.1 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Who Reported Skipping Work in the Previous 30 Days, by Drug Use and Selected Occupation Categories, 1991-1993
	Percentage Skipping Work			Percentage Skipping Work
Occupation	No Current Illicit Drug Use	Current Illicit Drug Use		No Heavy Alcohol Use	Heavy Alcohol Use
Total	7.5	15.9		7.7	13.1
Executive Managers (3-6,8-19)	5.7	10.9		6.1	4.6
Architects, Engineers, & Engineering Technicians (43-63,213-218)	9.4	3.7		8.9	*
Sales Occupations (243-274,277,285)	5.7	10.5		5.6	12.9
Duplicating, Mail Clerks & Dispatchers (345-374)	6.0	9.3		6.3	*
Food Preparation, Waiters, Waitresses & Bartenders (433-444)	7.5	18.5		9.0	10.9
Cleaning & Building Services (407,448-453)	8.5	9.4		7.8	*
Electrical & Electronic Repairers, Other Mechanics & Repairers (523-549)	7.8	*		8.5	5.8
Construction Trades (553-599)	8.2	14.5		8.0	15.6
Machine Operators (703-779)	9.8	11.9		9.8	11.7
Handlers, Equipment Cleaners, Helpers, Laborers & Extractive Occupations (613-617,863-889)	7.3	19.0		8.0	12.8

Note: Standard occupation codes appear in parentheses. See Table 3.7 for a full list of occupation categories and codes. Heavy alcohol use is defined as drinking five or more drinks on five or more occasions during the previous 30 days.

*Low precision; no estimate reported.

Source: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1991-1993.

Note: Standard industry codes appear in parentheses. See Table 3.8 for a full list of industry categories and codes. Heavy alcohol use is defined as drinking five or more drinks on five or more occasions during the previous 30 days.

*Low precision; no estimate reported.

Source: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1991-1993.

Note: Standard occupation codes appear in parentheses. See Table 3.7 for a full list of occupational categories and codes. Heavy alcohol use is defined as drinking five or more drinks on five or more occasions during the previous 30 days.

*Low precision; no estimate reported.

Source: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1991-1993.

Note: Standard industry codes appear in parentheses. See Table 3.8 for a full list of industry categories and codes. Heavy alcohol use is defined as drinking five or more drinks on five or more occasions during the previous 30 days.

*Low precision; no estimate reported.

Source: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1991-1993.

This page was last updated on June 16, 2008.

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.