An Analysis of Worker Drug Use and Workplace Policies and Programs

1.3 Limitations of the Results

There are several limitations to these data and to the analyses presented in this report that prevent them from establishing whether illicit drug use or heavy alcohol use directly influence workplace outcomes, or whether characteristics of the workplace directly influence drug and alcohol use. First, the NHSDA does not follow respondents over time (interviews are conducted one time only) and therefore it is not clear whether characteristics of certain occupations or establishments influence current illicit drug or heavy alcohol use, or if workers who use illicit drugs or alcohol heavily tend to gravitate towards certain kinds of occupations or establishments. Second, the complex relationships among demographic characteristics, occupation, and establishment size tend to obscure the association between any one of these factors and current illicit drug and heavy alcohol use when the other factors are not taken into account simultaneously. One would need to conduct multivariate analyses to uncover the precise association between a particular factor such as occupation and illicit drug use or heavy alcohol use. There may also be other factors not measured by the NHSDA that influence these associations. Third, when examining data on workplace policies or programs that address drug and alcohol use such as employee assistance programs or workplace drug testing programs (see Chapters 5-6), it is important to remember that these data reflect workers’ perceptions of policies or programs; individual workers may not be fully aware of the nuances of policies or programs in their workplace. Finally, these data do not contain information about the timing of substance use; that is, measures of illicit drug use or heavy alcohol use in the past 30 days do not specify whether or not use took place during working hours, or whether the respondent’s use led to impairment while on the job.

This page was last updated on June 03, 2008.

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.