Do health professionals’ attitudes towards alcohol use matter for alcohol prevention efforts? Results from the WIRUS-OHS study

BACKGROUND: Use of alcohol is a major public health issue, representing the 7th largest burden of disease in the world. Workplaces offer a unique arena for health initiatives addressing alcohol use, where occupational health services (OHS) personnel play an important role. However, we do not know if the extent of such initiatives may be influenced by personal drinking attitudes among OHS personnel. Thus, the aim of the study was to explore how drinking attitudes among OHS personnel were associated wit their frequency of working with alcohol-related cases and with their views on alcohol prevention activities in the OHS. METHODS: The WIRUS project included a cross-sectional survey of attitudes and practices among OHS personnel (n=325) employed by Norwegian OHS services (n=69), who informed about sociodemographics and professional characteristics, drinking attitudes, frequency of cases with alcohol-related issues, and perceptions toward the role of the OHS in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention activities. Measures of associations were examined with linear and logistic regression models. RESULTS: Drinking attitudes were unrelated to the frequency of working with alcohol-related cases. Physicians, psychologists, and nurses had higher frequency of working with alcohol-related cases, compared to those with other professional backgrounds (β=0.46, p=0.01). Drinking attitudes were also unrelated to attitudes towards primary/secondary/tertiary prevention activities in OHS, while female OHS personnel were more positive towards increased primary alcohol prevention in the OHS (OR:1.82, p