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Affiliation
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Department of Health Behavior and Policy, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. |
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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Employment-related substance use can negatively affect both workplace and worker. Relationships between workplace characteristics and substance use may be explained by genetic and environmental effects; this research uses a co-twin control (discordant twin) design to disentangle these influences.
METHODS: This study compared population-level to discordant twin pair relationships to analyze the genetic and environmental influences of work-related risks on substance use in N = 2,138 dizygotic and monozygotic male twins from the Virginia Adult Twin Study of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders. Negative binomial and logistic regressions were fit to predict differences in the frequency of drinking, typical and maximum number of drinks, the number of cigarettes per day, and any binge drinking or any tobacco use across occupation, work hours, job strain, problems with coworkers, and perceived job insecurity.
RESULTS: In population-level analyses, several work-related variables were associated with substance use. The population-level associations of occupation with typical and maximum drinks per day and of problems with coworkers to binge drinking were not significant at the twin level. At both the population and discordant twin levels, only higher occupational status was associated with a lower likelihood of regular tobacco use (odds ratio 0.44, 95% confidence interval 0.21, 0.94).
CONCLUSIONS: Variation in genes and shared environment appears to account for many of the population-level relationships between work-related stressors and substance use. Work stressors may not be the most fruitful intervention point when aiming to reduce alcohol or tobacco use, although men in certain high-stress occupations may be at greater risk for substance use.
Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.
Language: en |