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      Alcohol Misuse among University Staff: A Cross-Sectional Study

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          Abstract

          Objectives

          To examine the prevalence of hazardous drinking among staff in a UK university and its association with key socio-demographic features.

          Design

          A cross-sectional study.

          Setting

          A university in the UK.

          Participants

          All employees on the university employee database were eligible to participate. Those who completed and returned the questionnaire were included in the sample. Respondents were 131 university employees.

          Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures

          An AUDIT cut-off score of ≥8 was used as a measure of hazardous drinking. AUDIT total score as well as a score of ≥1 in each of the three conceptual domains of alcohol consumption (questions 1–3), dependence symptoms (questions 4–6) and alcohol-related problems (questions 7–10) were used as indicators of levels of drinking and alcohol-related consequences. Secondary outcomes were employees' demographics.

          Results

          Over one third (35%) of respondents were classified as hazardous drinkers. Twenty three per cent reported having blackouts after drinking and 14% had injuries or had injured someone. The odds of being a hazardous drinker for an employee in central departments (Human Resources, Registry etc) is only one third of that of an employee in science and health-related departments (OR = 0.35, 95% CI = 0.14 to 0.91). The proportion of hazardous drinkers was higher in males compared to females (43% and 30% respectively), part-time compared to full-time (46% and 34% respectively), and academic compared to non-academic employees (39% and 32% respectively), although these were not statistically significant (p>0.05). Furthermore, age, religion and ethnic origin were not found to be significantly associated with hazardous drinking, although total scores were significantly lower for ethnic minorities compared to white employees (p = 0.019).

          Conclusions

          In this study, hazardous drinking was highly prevalent among university employees. However, overt recruiting of staff to address sensitive issues such as alcohol misuse is problematic.

          Related collections

          Most cited references14

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          The AUDIT questionnaire: choosing a cut-off score. Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test.

          Michael Saunders, Katherine Conigrave, Michael Hall (1995)
          The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) is a 10-item questionnaire designed by the World Health Organization to screen for hazardous alcohol intake in primary health care settings. In this longitudinal study we examined its performance in predicting alcohol-related harm over the full range of its scores using receiver operating characteristic analyses. Three hundred and thirty ambulatory care patients were interviewed using a detailed assessment schedule which included the AUDIT questions. After 2-3 years, subjects were reviewed and their experience of alcohol-related medical and social harm assessed by interview and perusal of medical records. AUDIT was a good predictor of both alcohol-related social and medical problems. Cut-off points of 7-8 maximized discrimination in the prediction of trauma and hypertension. Higher cut-offs (12 and 22) provided better discrimination in the prediction of alcohol-related social problems and of liver disease or gastrointestinal bleeding, but high specificity was offset by reduced sensitivity. We conclude that the recommended cut-off score of eight is a reasonable approximation to the optimal for a variety of endpoints.
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            Reported levels of alcohol consumption and binge drinking within the UK undergraduate student population over the last 25 years.

            Jan Gill (2015)
            Results of a literature review of 18 studies investigating the drinking behaviour of undergraduate students at UK universities over a period of 25 years are presented. While comparison between studies is complicated by inconsistencies in the terms employed to describe drinking behaviour, it is concluded that significant numbers of both male and female students are reported to exceed sensible weekly consumption guidelines. Recorded levels of binge drinking among both female and male students are extremely variable between studies. Further research is needed to clarify this position. However, if the most recent research evidence is substantiated, female and male binge drinking levels may exceed those of their peers in the general population and their US counterparts. The reported ramifications of harmful drinking for the health and well-being of students are reviewed. A possible link between poor academic performance and alcohol consumption appears tenuous and merits further investigation. Evidence relevant to the view that the drinking behaviour of female students is changing is considered.
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              Screening properties of questionnaires and laboratory tests for the detection of alcohol abuse or dependence in a general practice population.

              S Ansoms, J Fevery, B Aertgeerts … (2001)
              Early identification of alcohol abuse or dependence is important in general practice because many diseases are influenced by alcohol. General practitioners, however, fail to recognise most patients with alcohol problems. To assess the diagnostic performance of the CAGE and AUDIT questionnaires, their derivatives, and laboratory tests in screening for alcohol abuse or dependence in a primary care population (male and female patients), attending their general practitioner (GP). A diagnostic cross-sectional study. A random sample of patients who were over 18 years of age (n = 1992) attending 69 general practices situated in the same region in Belgium. Alcohol questionnaires (CIDI 1.1, section I, CAGE, AUDIT, AUDIT-C, Five-Shot, and AUDIT Piccinelli) were completed, demographic information was recorded, and patients underwent conventional blood tests, including mean corpuscular volume, liver function tests, the gamma-glutamyl transferase test, and carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT, estimated using %CDT). Calculations of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, odds ratios with their 95% CIs, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for different scores of the questionnaires and laboratory tests, using DSM-III-R as the reference standard. The past-year prevalence of alcohol abuse or dependence in this population was 8.9% (178/1992) of which there were 132 male and 45 female patients attending a general practice. The GPs identified 33.5% of patients with alcohol abuse or dependence. Among male patients, all questionnaires had reasonable sensitivities between 68% and 93% and hence at lower cut-points than recommended. Only the sensitivity of the CAGE, even at its lowest cut-point of > or = 1 was lower (62%). In female patients the sensitivities were lower; however, odds ratios were higher for different questionnaires. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves did not differ between the questionnaires. The laboratory tests had low diagnostic accuracy with areas under the ROC curves (AUCs) between 0.60 and 0.67 for female patients and 0.57 and 0.65 for male patients. This is one of the largest known studies on alcohol abuse or dependence among family care practices. We confirm earlier results that the AUDIT questionnaire seems equally appropriate for males and females; however, screening properties among male patients are higher. Nevertheless, the Five-Shot questionnaire is shorter and easier to use in a general practice setting and has nearly the same diagnostic properties in male and female general practice patient populations. We confirm that conventional laboratory tests are of no use for detecting alcohol abuse or dependence in a primary care setting. Also, the %CDT cannot been used as a screening instrument in this general practice population.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Kent E. Vrana: Role: Editor
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE
                Journal ID (publisher-id): plos
                Journal ID (pmc): plosone
                Title: PLoS ONE
                Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203
                Publication date Collection: 2014
                Publication date (Electronic): 29 July 2014
                Volume: 9
                Issue: 7
                Electronic Location Identifier: e98134
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Primary Care and Public Health Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
                [2 ]Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
                [3 ]Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
                [4 ]Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
                Penn State College of Medicine, United States of America
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Conceived and designed the experiments: SA NP VRP. Performed the experiments: SA. Analyzed the data: SA DB NP VRP. Wrote the paper: SA VRP. Interpretation of ethical issues and medical implication of the findings: DB.

                Article
                Publisher ID: PONE-D-13-32282
                DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0098134
                PMC ID: 4114484
                PubMed ID: 25072628
                SO-VID: 2b1d660c-e81b-419b-a72c-2840dab934a8
                Copyright statement: Copyright @ 2014
                License:

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                Date received : 18 July 2013
                Date accepted : 28 April 2014
                Page count
                Pages: 10
                Funding
                These authors have no support or funding to report.
                Categories
                Subject: Research Article
                Subject: Biology and Life Sciences
                Subject: Nutrition
                Subject: Diet
                Subject: Alcohol Consumption
                Subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
                Subject: Epidemiology
                Subject: Social Epidemiology
                Subject: Health Care
                Subject: Health Risk Analysis
                Subject: Mental Health and Psychiatry
                Subject: Substance-Related Disorders
                Subject: Substance Abuse
                Subject: Pharmacology
                Subject: Behavioral Pharmacology
                Subject: Drug Dependence
                Subject: Public and Occupational Health
                Subject: Behavioral and Social Aspects of Health
                Subject: Occupational and Industrial Medicine
                Subject: Research and Analysis Methods
                Subject: Research Design
                Subject: Clinical Research Design
                Subject: Cross-Sectional Studies
                Subject: Survey Research
                Subject: Science Policy
                Subject: Science and Technology Workforce
                Subject: Social Sciences
                Subject: Sociology
                Subject: Education
                Subject: Schools
                Subject: Universities

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized

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