Abstract
With the rise of drug misuse among workers in recent years, preliminary research on potential risk factors in the workplace of single-type of drug misuse has been reported. This is the first study to examine cross-sectional associations of work stress, in terms of effort–reward imbalance, with multiple drug misuse (including any drug misuse, opioid misuse, sedatives misuse, cannabis misuse, and other drug misuse) during the past 12 months in a national sample of U.S. workers. Data of 2211 workers were derived from the nationally representative and population-based Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. Internal consistency reliability and factorial validity of a 17-item effort–reward imbalance measure were robust and satisfactory. After adjustment for relevant covariates, logistic regression analyses showed that workers experiencing effort–reward imbalance at work had significantly higher odds of any drug misuse (OR and 95% CI = 1.18 (1.03, 1.37)), especially opioid misuse (OR and 95% CI = 1.35 (1.07, 1.69)) and other drug misuse (OR and 95% CI = 1.36 (1.01, 1.83)). The findings suggest that a stressful work environment may act as a determinant of drug misuse, and further prospective evidence is needed.
Highlights
Published: 17 December 2021Among the many risk factors of drug misuse and overdose, work-related conditions have received special attention in recent research
This holds true for opioids [1,2,3,4,5], cannabis [6,7,8], and benzodiazepines [9,10]. Increased emphasis on this topic resulted from practical concerns, most obviously from the documented excess mortality of opioid overdose among working people [1,3,11]. Several of these studies explored distinct stressful aspects within the complexities of modern work environments and the results suggest that psychosocial hazards are more prevalent than physical hazards [12]
While two large-scale studies explored this relationship with indicators of the job strain model [28,29], a respective test based on the effort–reward imbalance, to our knowledge, has not yet been conducted. To fill this knowledge gap, we aimed to examine the hypothesis that effort–reward imbalance at work is associated with an elevated odds of reporting misuse of opioids, sedatives, cannabis, and other drugs, using data from a national survey among employed people in the United
Summary
Published: 17 December 2021Among the many risk factors of drug misuse and overdose, work-related conditions have received special attention in recent research. Increased emphasis on this topic resulted from practical concerns, most obviously from the documented excess mortality of opioid overdose among working people [1,3,11] Several of these studies explored distinct stressful aspects within the complexities of modern work environments and the results suggest that psychosocial hazards are more prevalent than physical hazards [12]. Rooted in biopsychosocial stress theory [16,17], these models offer explanations of observed associations of adverse work environments with elevated health risks, including substance use and addiction In this context, two models received special attention in international investigations: the demand–control model [14,18], and the effort–reward imbalance (ERI)
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