title: Effort-Reward Imbalance and Heavy Alcohol Consumption Among Humanitarian Aid Workers.
abstract: The purpose of the study was to explore the prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption and its association with stress-related working conditions-defined in terms of effort-reward imbalance (ERI)-among a large sample of humanitarian aid workers operating across four continents. Research has shown employee alcohol consumption has potential detrimental implications for health and work outcomes and is associated with exposure to work stressors. Research to identify links between stressful aspects of work and heavy alcohol consumption among humanitarian aid workers could usefully inform the design of sector-specific interventions concerned with the reduction of alcohol consumption.
  
  
  
  Questionnaire data were obtained from 1,063 women and 917 men working in an international humanitarian agency. Logistic regression analyses were conducted separately for men and women (with different cutoff points to identify heavy drinking) to investigate the relationship between ERI and the risk of heavy alcohol consumption while controlling for a host of sociodemographic and occupational variables.
  
  
  
  The prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption among women (18%) was higher than the corresponding rate for men (10%). Results lent support for the effort-reward perspective among women only: intermediate and high ERI in women was associated with a tripling of risk for heavy alcohol consumption.
  
  
  
  Interventions to reduce ERI among female humanitarian aid workers might help to reduce heavy drinking within this population.
authors: Division of Psychiatry and Applied Psychology, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England.|Psychology and Counseling Department, Webster University, Bellevue, Switzerland.
authors: Liza
authors: L
authors: Jachens
authors: Division of Psychiatry and Applied Psychology, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England.
authors: Jonathan
authors: J
authors: Houdmont
authors: Psychology and Counseling Department, Webster University, Bellevue, Switzerland.
authors: Roslyn
authors: R
authors: Thomas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008493:Medical Missions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D066189:Missionaries / Q000523:psychology*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012201:Reward; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload