Alcohol consumption in healthcare workers and risk of workplace injury: a case-control study

Abstract

Medical surveillance for alcohol abuse and dependency at work is mandatory for a list of high-risk occupations. The occupational physician is the only figure entitled to perform alcohol and laboratory tests on employees. This study aims to investigate alcohol-induced injuries in healthcare workers, by using Carbohydrate-Deficient Transferrin (CDT) as a marker during medical surveillance visits. A retrospective study was carried out in an Italian healthcare unit. The sample consisted in 75 healthcare workers who sustained an occupational injury. To assess alcohol consumption, CDT levels were tested as well as serum alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV). No worker had positive CDT levels (cut-off 2%); 12% of cases (5 male and 4 female workers) had γ-GT level higher than normal range (cut-off: 36 U/L). Most injuries (53.33%) occurred during morning shifts, 33.33% during afternoon shifts and 13.33% during night shifts. Female workers had a higher injury rate (73%); biological injuries were the most frequent (36%), followed by slipping and falling 33%. This study seems to indicate that alcohol does not represent an important cause of occupational injuries, as no cases of workplace injury were found positive for CDT. CDT as a biomarker in health surveillance programs could be used to assess alcohol consumption when used alongside other biochemical parameters, and its routine use during medical surveillance could act as a deterrent.