Preventing alcohol problems and improving drinking habits among employees : An evaluation of an alcohol education

• Aim: To investigate whether a day-long alcohol education provided to all employed by a Swedish municipality had an effect on alcohol consumption among all employees and among employees with lowand higher levels of consumption respectively.Methods: A quasi-experimental evaluation using pre- and post-test questionnaires was performed. The municipality’s employees were divided in one intervention group (n:124) and one control group (n:139). ANOVA with repeated measures was performed on AUDIT-score and on three separate AUDIT-items; frequency of drinking, frequency of binge drinking and typical amount consumed per drinking occasion.Results: No significant effect on alcohol consumption was identified for the intervention group as a whole. Stratified analyses showed that the intervention had a significant effect on reducing the frequency of binge drinking among those with the highest consumption.Conclusions: Compared to many other studies on alcohol educations some results on behaviour were found when performing stratified analyses. The employees with the highest alcohol consumption, although not labelled high consumers, reduced their frequency of binge drinking. It is though difficult to speculate in whether these results can be generalized to other working populations. The results also have to be valued and compared with other more direct methods of reaching risk consumers, such as screening and brief interventions.To know more about alcohol and associated risk might facilitate thewillingness to seek help sooner.

Nyckelord

Alcohol

prevention

workplaces

intervention

education

evaluation

General Criminology

allmän kriminologi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)