PLoS ONE (Jan 2012)

Job strain and alcohol intake: a collaborative meta-analysis of individual-participant data from 140,000 men and women.

  • Katriina Heikkilä,
  • Solja T Nyberg,
  • Eleonor I Fransson,
  • Lars Alfredsson,
  • Dirk De Bacquer,
  • Jakob B Bjorner,
  • Sébastien Bonenfant,
  • Marianne Borritz,
  • Hermann Burr,
  • Els Clays,
  • Annalisa Casini,
  • Nico Dragano,
  • Raimund Erbel,
  • Goedele A Geuskens,
  • Marcel Goldberg,
  • Wendela E Hooftman,
  • Irene L Houtman,
  • Matti Joensuu,
  • Karl-Heinz Jöckel,
  • France Kittel,
  • Anders Knutsson,
  • Markku Koskenvuo,
  • Aki Koskinen,
  • Anne Kouvonen,
  • Constanze Leineweber,
  • Thorsten Lunau,
  • Ida E H Madsen,
  • Linda L Magnusson Hanson,
  • Michael G Marmot,
  • Martin L Nielsen,
  • Maria Nordin,
  • Jaana Pentti,
  • Paula Salo,
  • Reiner Rugulies,
  • Andrew Steptoe,
  • Johannes Siegrist,
  • Sakari Suominen,
  • Jussi Vahtera,
  • Marianna Virtanen,
  • Ari Väänänen,
  • Peter Westerholm,
  • Hugo Westerlund,
  • Marie Zins,
  • Töres Theorell,
  • Mark Hamer,
  • Jane E Ferrie,
  • Archana Singh-Manoux,
  • G David Batty,
  • Mika Kivimäki,
  • IPD-Work Consortium

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040101
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 7
p. e40101

Abstract

Read online

The relationship between work-related stress and alcohol intake is uncertain. In order to add to the thus far inconsistent evidence from relatively small studies, we conducted individual-participant meta-analyses of the association between work-related stress (operationalised as self-reported job strain) and alcohol intake.We analysed cross-sectional data from 12 European studies (n = 142 140) and longitudinal data from four studies (n = 48 646). Job strain and alcohol intake were self-reported. Job strain was analysed as a binary variable (strain vs. no strain). Alcohol intake was harmonised into the following categories: none, moderate (women: 1-14, men: 1-21 drinks/week), intermediate (women: 15-20, men: 22-27 drinks/week) and heavy (women: >20, men: >27 drinks/week). Cross-sectional associations were modelled using logistic regression and the results pooled in random effects meta-analyses. Longitudinal associations were examined using mixed effects logistic and modified Poisson regression. Compared to moderate drinkers, non-drinkers and (random effects odds ratio (OR): 1.10, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.14) and heavy drinkers (OR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.26) had higher odds of job strain. Intermediate drinkers, on the other hand, had lower odds of job strain (OR: 0.92, 95% CI: 0.86, 0.99). We found no clear evidence for longitudinal associations between job strain and alcohol intake.Our findings suggest that compared to moderate drinkers, non-drinkers and heavy drinkers are more likely and intermediate drinkers less likely to report work-related stress.