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

TABLE OF CONTENTS  (TOC)

CITATION:

LIST OF TABLES 

CITATION & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

HIGHLIGHTS 

1. INTRODUCTION 

2. TRENDS IN ILLICIT DRUG AND HEAVY ALCOHOL USE AMONG WORKERS 

3. PREVALENCE OF ILLICIT DRUG AND HEAVY ALCOHOL USE AMONG FULL-TIME WORKERS 

4. ILLICIT DRUG AND HEAVY ALCOHOL USE, BY OCCUPATION, INDUSTRY, GENDER, AND MARITAL STATUS 

5. ILLICIT DRUG AND HEAVY ALCOHOL USE, BY OCCUPATION, INDUSTRY, AND NUMBER OF JOBS HELD IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS 

6. EMPLOYEE DRUG TESTING BY OCCUPATION AND INDUSTRY 

7. ABSENCE FROM WORK AND ILLICIT DRUG AND HEAVY ALCOHOL USE 

8. ILLICIT DRUG AND HEAVY ALCOHOL USE AMONG PART-TIME WORKERS 

APPENDICES

A. NHSDA QUESTIONNAIRE ITEMS USED

B. ANALYTIC METHODS 

C. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR OCCUPATION AND INDUSTRY CODES 

LIST OF TABLES

2.1 Trends in Percentage of Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Employment Status, 1985-1993 

2.2 Trends in Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Occupation Categories, 1988-1993 

2.3 Trends in Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Industry Categories, 1985-1993 

3.1 Occupation Categories with the Highest and Lowest Rates of Current Illicit Drug Use, Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, 1991-1993 

3.2 Occupation Categories with the Highest and Lowest Rates of Heavy Alcohol Use, Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, 1991-1993 

3.3 Industry Categories with the Highest and Lowest Rates of Current Illicit Drug Use, Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, 1991-1993 

3.4 Industry Categories with the Highest and Lowest Rates of Heavy Alcohol Use, Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, 1991-1993 

3.5 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Occupation Categories, 1991-1993 

3.6 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use,  by Industry Categories, 1991-1993

3.7 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Revised Occupation Categories, 1991-1993

3.8 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Revised Industry Categories, 1991-1993

3.9 Estimated Number of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Revised Occupation Categories, 1991-1993

3.10 Estimated Number of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Revised Industry Categories, 1991-1993 

4.1 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Revised Occupation Categories and Gender, 1991-1993

4.2 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Revised Industry Categories and Gender, 1991-1993

4.3 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Revised Occupation Categories and Marital Status, 1991-1993

4.4 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Revised Industry Categories and Marital Status, 1991-1993

5.1 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Revised Occupation Categories and Number of Jobs Held in the Past Five Years, 1991-1993

5.2 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Revised Industry Categories and Number of Jobs Held in the Past Five Years, 1991-1993

6.1 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Participation in a Mandatory Employer Drug Test in the Past 12 Months and Current Illicit Drug Use, by Revised Occupation Categories, 1991-1993

6.2 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Participation in a Mandatory Employer Drug Test in the Past 12 Months and Current Illicit Drug Use, by Revised Industry Categories, 1991-1993

7.1 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Selected Occupation Categories and Whether They Skipped Work in the Previous 30 Days, 1991-1993

7.2 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Selected Industry Categories and Whether They Skipped Work in the Previous 30 Days, 1991-1993

7.3 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Selected Occupation Categories and Whether They Were Absent from Work Two or More Days in the Previous 30 Days Due to Illness or Injury, 1991-1993

7.4 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Selected Industry Categories and Whether They Were Absent from Work Two or More Days in the Previous 30 Days Due to Illness or Injury, 1991-1993

8.1 Percentage of Part-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Occupation Categories, 1991-1993

8.2 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Occupation Categories, 1991-1993

8.3 Percentage of Part-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Industry Categories, 1991-1993

8.4 Percentage of Full-Time Workers, Ages 18-49, Reporting Drug Use, by Industry Categories, 1991-1993

Highlights

This report presents information on illicit drug use and heavy alcohol use among full-time U.S. workers based on the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA). By combining data from the 1991-1993 NHSDAs, the report shows the percentage of full-time workers, ages 18-49, who reported illicit drug and heavy alcohol use, by specific occupation and industry categories. The key results of this report include:

• There was a significant decrease from 1985 to 1993 in the percentage of full-time, part-time, and unemployed workers who reported current and past year illicit drug use. The prevalence of heavy alcohol use remained relatively steady, although among unemployed workers there was a significant increase from 1985 to 1993.

• During 1991-1993, the highest rates of current and past year illicit drug use were reported by workers in the following occupations: Construction, Food Preparation, and Waiters and Waitresses. Heavy alcohol use followed a similar pattern, although Auto Mechanics, Vehicle Repairers, Light Truck Drivers, and Laborers also had high rates of heavy alcohol use.

• The lowest rates of current illicit drug use were found among workers in the following occupations: Police and Detectives, Administrative Support, Teachers, and Child Care Workers. The lowest rates of heavy alcohol use were among Data Clerks, Personnel Specialists, and Secretaries.

• In general, unmarried workers (divorced, separated, or never married) had about twice the rate of illicit drug and heavy alcohol use as married workers.

• Workers who reported having three or more jobs in the previous five years were about twice as likely to be current or past year illicit drug users as those who had two or fewer jobs.

• About 13 percent of full-time workers, ages 18-49, reported past year involvement in a mandatory drug test at work. The highest percentage occurred among Truck Drivers, other Transportation Drivers, and Public Safety officials (e.g., Police, Fire Fighters). The lowest rates were reported by Entertainers and Writers, Lawyers and Judges, and Teachers.

• Part-time workers, ages 18-49, reported a higher rate of illicit drug and a similar rate of heavy alcohol use as full-time workers. Part-time workers in the following occupations reported the highest rate of illicit drug and heavy alcohol use: Construction, Farming and Fishing, and Transportation.

   

  

Chapter 1 Introduction

This report contains national estimates of the prevalence of drug use (including illicit drug use and heavy alcohol use) among persons working in specific occupation and industry categories. The estimates are derived from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), a cross-sectional survey of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States ages 12 and over. The principal focus of the report is the nation�s full-time workers ages 18-49. Analysis of these occupation and industry categories was made possible by combining the data from the 1991-1993 NHSDAs. The report also presents information on trends in prevalence over time, employee drug testing, absence from work, and prevalence among part-time workers.

1.1 Summary of NHSDA Methodology

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse is the principal source of statistical information on the use of illicit drugs by the United States population. Conducted periodically by the federal government since 1971, the NHSDA collects information by administering questionnaires to a representative sample of the population at their places of residence. Since October 1992, the survey has been directed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The two primary goals of the survey are to estimate the prevalence of illicit drug use in the United States, and to monitor trends in prevalence.

The NHSDA includes residents of households, noninstitutionalized group quarters (e.g., shelters, dormitories, rooming houses), and civilians living on military bases. Persons excluded from the survey, and thus from the population it represents, include the homeless who never use shelters, active military personnel, U.S. citizens living abroad, and residents of institutionalized settings, such as jails and hospitals.

The survey interview takes about one hour to complete and includes procedures designed to maximize honest reporting of illicit drug use (such as the use of self-administered answer sheets). Information is collected on the recency and frequency of use of a variety of licit and illicit drugs, opinions about drugs, and drug treatment history.

In addition to detailed information about drug use, the NHSDA collects information on employment, race/ethnicity, age, marital status, health status, and problems associated with use. The employment data include current status (e.g., full- or part-time employment), detailed occupation and industry classifications, work history, and drug testing at work.

1.2 Purposes of this Report

Drug use by the U.S. work force is an important health and public policy issue. Although there is some research that describes this issue and provides estimates of drug use among workers,¹ virtually all studies are restricted to an examination of a particular company, occupation, or industry. The main limitation of previous research has been a lack of nationally representative surveys with sufficient sample sizes to examine the numerous occupations and industries that comprise the American work force. Combining NHSDAs allows one to overcome this obstacle and provide estimates of drug use by more specific occupation and industry classifications than has been possible previously. Therefore, one may gain a better understanding of the distribution of drug use among U.S. workers, and tailor prevention and treatment efforts for those occupations and industries affected most by illicit drug and heavy alcohol use.

The present report uses data from the 1991, 1992, and 1993 NHSDAs and focuses primarily on survey respondents, ages 18-49, who reported that they were working full-time at the time they were interviewed. In addition, the trend tables (Tables 2.1-2.3) utilize data from the periodic NHSDAs conducted between 1985 and 1993. Since each person was interviewed only once, the combined 1991-1993 data was used to maximize the number of respondents available for analysis. Overall, the 1991-1993 surveys included 87,915 respondents. Of these, almost two-fifths (38.1 percent) reported that they were 18-49 years old and currently working full-time. The overall sample size used in the following analyses is 33,505, representing an annual average of about 77 million 18-49 year old full-time workers. The remainder of the sample consisted of those outside the target age range (ages 12-17 or 50 and older), part-time workers, homemakers, retired persons, students, and the unemployed.

The report is concerned principally with the distribution of and trends in illicit drug use and heavy alcohol use among U.S. workers by occupation and industry. The NHSDA uses the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) standard classification system to place workers into particular occupation and industry categories. These categories are represented by three-digit codes. Appendix C provides a detailed list of these codes.

Specifically, the following tables report the prevalence of past month illicit drug use (termed "current use"), past year illicit drug use, and past month heavy alcohol use, by occupation and industry categories. Since use of the USDOL three digit classification system (the Standard Occupational Classification system, SOC; and the Standard Industrial Classification system, SIC) resulted in groups that were too small for precise estimates, three classification systems were either adopted or developed for use in this report. The first, which is employed to assess trends over time in drug use by occupation and industry categories from 1985 to 1993 (see Tables 2.2-2.3) and to compare part-time to full-time workers (see Tables 8.1-8.4), is a commonly used system² of 15 occupation and 15 industry categories that collapses detailed categories into larger broad groupings. The second, represented in Tables 3.1-3.6, uses a more detailed system of 73 occupation categories and 71 industry categories to capture the largest number of categories feasible for precise prevalence estimates. However, once the sample was divided into demographic subgroups (e.g., by gender or marital status), the groups that resulted from this system proved too small for precise estimates. Therefore, a revised system of 40 occupation categories and 51 industry categories, used in Tables 3.7-7.4, was developed so that a further analysis of drug use among full-time workers could be undertaken.

Specific questions addressed in this report include:

• Has the prevalence of drug use among full-time workers changed over time?

• Which occupations and industries exhibited the highest prevalence of illicit drug use and heavy drinking?

• Which occupations and industries account for the largest aggregate numbers of full-workers using illicit drugs and drinking heavily?

• Did illicit drug and heavy alcohol use rates among full-time workers differ by gender or marital status, and were these differences more pronounced in certain occupations or industries?

• What percentage of full-time workers have participated in a mandatory drug testing program at work, and how does this relate to current illicit drug use?

• Are illicit drug and heavy alcohol use associated with job changes or absence from work?

• What is the prevalence of illicit drug and heavy alcohol use among part-time workers by occupation and industry?

The following chapters and their affiliated tables provide numerous estimates that seek to answer these questions.

1.3 Limitations of the Results

Before proceeding to a description of the findings, it is important to note that, besides the basic questions outlined, no attempt is made in this report to control for potentially confounding factors that might explain the observed associations. For instance, it is essential to recognize that both age and gender can confound any association between drug use and occupation or industry. Males and younger adults are more likely to use illicit drugs and alcohol than women and older adults.³ Since some occupations tend to be overrepresented by males (e.g., construction jobs) or younger people (e.g., waiters and waitresses), it might appear that something about these occupations is associated intrinsically with drug use. Actually, drug use might be more prevalent among certain occupations or industries merely because males or younger people also happen to be overrepresented in these occupations. For several of the tables in this report, the age and gender composition of occupations and industries is provided, along with drug use prevalence, to aid in the interpretation of results. Furthermore, the cross-sectional nature of these data precludes any causal interpretations of observed relationships. For example, a higher rate of illicit drug use among workers who missed days of work than among workers who did not miss work is not proof that drug use causes absence from work. Finally, the information presented does not measure potential illicit drug or heavy alcohol use while at work; the questions are designed to determine any use during the past month or past year.

1.4 Outline of the Chapters

This report relies primarily on tables to provide information on illicit drug and heavy alcohol use among U.S. workers. Textual reporting is kept to a minimum. Chapter two presents trend data on illicit drug and heavy alcohol use by occupation and industry categories. Chapter three provides data on the prevalence of drug use by occupation and industry. The next chapter presents a breakdown of drug use by gender and marital status of the workers. A description of drug use by occupation, industry, and the number of jobs held in the past five years is provided in chapter five. Chapter six reports data on participation in mandatory drug testing programs by full-time workers. The final two chapters assess absence from work and reported drug use, and present information on illicit drug and heavy alcohol use among part-time workers, ages 18-49. Three appendices that describe the NHSDA questionnaire items from which the estimates were derived, the statistical techniques used, and the detailed coding of occupations and industries conclude the report.

 

Chapter 2 Trends in Illicit Drug and Heavy Alcohol Use Among Full-Time Workers

This chapter provides an overview of illicit drug and heavy alcohol use among U.S. workers, ages 18-49, over a nine year period from 1985-1993.

Table 2.1 presents a broad picture of trends in drug use among U.S. workers and nonworkers. Unlike the rest of the report, the table provides information on illicit drug and heavy alcohol use among four groups: full-time workers, part-time workers, unemployed workers, and others (i.e., retired, disabled, homemaker, student, or "other"). Current and past year illicit drug use decreased significantly from 1985 to 1993 among each group. Heavy alcohol use remained at similar levels from 1985 to 1993, with a slight, but significant, decrease among full-time workers. There was a significant increase in heavy alcohol use from 1985 to 1993 among unemployed workers.

Table 2.1 also shows that since 1985, rates of illicit drug use and heavy alcohol use for full-time employed workers ages 18-49 have consistently been about the same as for the total population ages 18-49. Furthermore, rates of illicit drug use were consistently higher in the unemployed population than in the total population.

Tables 2.2 and 2.3 present trends in current illicit drug use, past year illicit drug use, and past month heavy alcohol use for 15 occupation and 15 industry categories. Estimates for occupation categories (Table 2.2) are shown only for 1988-1993. Occupation categories available from the 1985 NHSDA are not comparable to categories available in later years.

Among specific occupations, most generally follow a similar trend of decreasing reported illicit drug use during 1988-1993. However, there was little change in heavy alcohol use from 1988 to 1993, although in the Service and Construction occupations there was a noticeable decrease.

Table 2.3 shows that, from 1985 to 1993, there was some decrease in heavy alcohol use among the Construction and Transportation groups, but an increase among the Retail Trade group.

Source: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: 1985-1993.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This publication was developed by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies (SAMHSA/OAS) under Contract No. 283-94-0002. The authors of this report are from NORC and were:  John P. Hoffmann, Angela Brittingham, and Cindy Larison.   Dean R. Gerstein was the principal investigator, and Janet Greenblatt was the SAMHSA project officer. The authors appreciate the guidance provided by the following reviewers: Dean R. Gerstein, NORC, Robert A. Johnson, NORC, Janet Greenblatt, SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies, Joseph Gfroerer, SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies, Charles Williams, SAMHSA's Workplace Community Prevention Branch, Joseph H. Autry, M.D., and Robert Stephenson, II, SAMHSA's Division of Workplace Programs, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.  Beatrice A. Rouse, SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies, prepared the web document.

Public Domain Notice

All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission from SAMHSA. Citation of the source is appreciated. 

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