Sickness absence and associations with sociodemographic factors, health risk behaviours, occupational stressors and adverse mental health in 40,343 UK police employees.

AIMS: Police employees may experience high levels of stress due to the challenging nature of their work which can then lead to sickness absence. To date, there has been limited research on sickness absence in the police. This exploratory analysis investigated sickness absence in UK police employees. METHODS: Secondary data analyses were conducted using data from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study (2006-2015). Past year sickness absence was self-reported and categorised as none, low (1-5 days), moderate (6-19 days) and long-term sickness absence (LTSA, 20 or more days). Descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regressions were used to examine sickness absence and exploratory associations with sociodemographic factors, occupational stressors, health risk behaviours, and mental health outcomes, controlling for rank, gender and age. RESULTS: From a sample of 40,343 police staff and police officers, forty-six per cent had no sickness absence within the previous year, 33% had a low amount, 13% a moderate amount and 8% were on LTSA. The groups that were more likely to take sick leave were women, non-uniformed police staff, divorced or separated, smokers and those with three or more general practitioner consultations in the past year, poorer mental health, low job satisfaction and high job strain. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights the groups of police employees who may be more likely to take sick leave and is unique in its use of a large cohort of police employees. The findings emphasise the importance of considering possible modifiable factors that may contribute to sickness absence in UK police forces.

The prevalence of hazardous and harmful drinking in the UK Police Service, and their co-occurrence with job strain and mental health problems.

AIMS: Due to the stressful nature of policing, police employees are at risk of mental health problems and problematic alcohol use. We aim to determine the prevalence of hazardous and harmful alcohol use in the UK Police Service, and to explore the associations with job strain and mental health problems. METHODS: Cross-sectional data from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study (N = 40 986) included measures of alcohol consumption (total units in past week), mental health (depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]) and job strain. The associations between mental health and job strain with alcohol consumption (i.e. abstinence, low-risk [<14 units per week, reference group], hazardous [>14 to 35 units for women, >14 to 50 units for men], harmful [>35 units for women, >50 units for men]), were analysed using multinomial logistic regressions, adjusting for potential confounders (i.e. age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, children under 18, income and smoking status). RESULTS: A total of 32.6% of police employees reported hazardous drinking, with 3.0% drinking at harmful levels. Compared to those without a mental health problem, police employees with depression, anxiety or PTSD were twice as likely to be harmful drinkers and were also 1.3 times more likely to report abstinence. Those reporting low strain (reference group) were more likely to drink hazardously compared to those reporting high strain, which was statistically moderated by mental health. When the sample was stratified by mental health status, the association between low strain (compared to all other categories) and hazardous drinking, was significant only in those without a mental health problem. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that police employees may be an occupational group at risk of alcohol harm, with one-third drinking hazardously. The J-shaped relationship between mental health and alcohol use highlights a need for an integration of mental health and alcohol services, tailored for the UK Police Service.

Drinking motivations in UK serving and ex-serving military personnel.

BACKGROUND: Drinking motivations within the UK military have not been studied despite the high prevalence of alcohol misuse in this group. AIMS: We aimed to characterize drinking motivations and their demographic, military and mental health associations in UK serving and ex-serving personnel. METHODS: Serving and ex-serving personnel reporting mental health, stress or emotional problems occurring in the last 3 years were selected from an existing cohort study. A semi-structured telephone interview survey examined participants' mental health, help-seeking, alcohol use and drinking motivations. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis of drinking motivations in military personnel (n = 1279; response rate = 84.6%) yielded 2 factors, labelled 'drinking to cope' and 'social pressure'. Higher drinking to cope motivations were associated with probable anxiety (rate ratio [RR] = 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.3-1.5), depression (RR = 1.3; 95% CI = 1.2-1.4) and post-traumatic stress disorder (RR = 1.4; 95% CI = 1.3-1.6). Higher social pressure motivations were associated with probable anxiety (odds ratio = 1.1; 95% CI = 1.0-1.1). Alcohol misuse and binge drinking were associated with reporting higher drinking to cope motivations, drinking at home and drinking alone. CONCLUSIONS: Amongst military personnel with a stress, emotional or mental health problem, those who drink to cope with mental disorder symptoms or because of social pressure, in addition to those who drink at home or drink alone, are more likely to also drink excessively.