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Heavy Drinking by Occupation in Spain: Differences Between Weekdays and the Weekend

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Abstract

Estimating occupational disparity in heavy drinking jointly for weekdays and the weekend may be misleading for prevention purposes, because reasons for disparity in both periods may differ. The main objective was to assess occupational disparity in heavy average drinking (HAD) by week period and sex. 42,108 employees aged 16–64 were recruited from national surveys in Spain between 2011 and 2020. The outcome was HAD, defined as daily alcohol intake over 20 g (men) or 10 g (women). Occupation was classified in 15 categories. HAD adjusted prevalence ratios (HAD-aPRs) taking all occupations as reference, and relative adjusted excess prevalences (HAD-aEPs) comparing the weekend to weekdays in each occupation, were estimated using Poisson regression models with robust variance adjusted for sociodemographic and health covariates. The HAD-aPRs comparing each occupation with all occupations ranged 0.63–1.92 on weekdays and 0.65–1.45 on the weekend, with the highest aPRs on weekdays in construction, hospitality and primary-sector workers (1.92–1.62). The weekend-weekdays HAD-aEPs by occupation ranged 2.60–8.33, with the highest values in technicians/administrators, other professionals, teachers and health professionals (8.33–6.44). The global aEP was higher in women (6.04) than in men (3.92), especially in occupations just mentioned (8.70-11.73 in women vs. 3.64–6.32 in men). There was a considerable relative disparity in HAD risk between occupations on weekdays, with the highest risks in certain low-skilled occupations. Such disparity decreased on the weekend. The relative weekend increase in HAD risk was greater in women and in certain high-skilled occupations. This should be considered when designing prevention interventions on harmful drinking.

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Data Availability

Data is publicly available at the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) website (Spanish Statistical Office (ine.es)).

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Code will be made available by the authors under request.

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Funding

Funding for this study was provided by the Government Delegation for the National Drugs Plan [grant number 2021I034-ENPY 136/22] and by the Carlos III Health Institute [grant number AESI-2021-PI21CIII/00045]. Government Delegation for the National Drugs Plan and Carlos III Health Institute had not any role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National School of Public Health, Carlos III Health Institute, 5 Avenida Monforte de Lemos, 28029, Madrid, Spain

    César Pérez-Romero, Gregorio Barrio, Marta Donat & María-José Belza

  2. Biomedical Research Center Network for Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain

    Gregorio Barrio, Marta Donat, Juan-Miguel Guerras, José Pulido, María-José Belza & Enrique Regidor

  3. Sociology and Social Work Department, Universidad Pública de Navarra, Avenida de Cataluña, 31006, Pamplona, Spain

    Almudena Moreno

  4. National Epidemiology Center, Carlos III Health Institute, 5 Avenida Monforte de Lemos, 28029, Madrid, Spain

    Juan-Miguel Guerras

  5. Department of Public and Maternal and Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Complutense, Plaza de Ramón y Cajal, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    José Pulido & Enrique Regidor

  6. Health Research Institute of San Carlos (IdISSC), Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Calle Profesor Martín Lagos, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Enrique Regidor

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  1. César Pérez-Romero
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Contributions

CPR, GB and ER conceptualized the study. MD and AM provided statistical support. JMG, JP and MJB contributed with data extraction and cleaning. CPR was the leading writer, while GB and ER were co-writers. GB prepared tables and figures for submitting. MD, AM, JMG, JP and MJB reviewed the initial version and suggested several modifications. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to César Pérez-Romero.

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Pérez-Romero, C., Barrio, G., Donat, M. et al. Heavy Drinking by Occupation in Spain: Differences Between Weekdays and the Weekend. J Community Health 49, 235–247 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-023-01288-4

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