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The abuse of prescription medications and employment history
Randy A Sansone1, Justin S Leung, Michael W Wiederman
1Wright State University School of Medicine, Dayton, Ohio, USA. Randy.sansone@khnetwork.org
Objective:
The relationship between prescription medication abuse and employment history is rarely studied and is the focus of the present study.
Method:
Using a cross-sectional consecutive sample of 325 internal medicine outpatients and a self-report survey methodology, we examined prescription medication abuse ("Have you ever intentionally, or on purpose, abused prescription medications?") and four employment variables.
Results:
We found statistically significant relationships between the abuse of prescription medications and all four employment variables--i.e., number of different jobs held since age 18 (5.05 in nonabusers versus 7.81 in past abusers), estimated percentage of time employed since age 18 (79.0% in nonabusers versus 63.3% in past abusers), being paid "under the table" (24.9% in nonabusers versus 77.4% in past abusers), and being fired (37.2% in non-abusers versus 64.5% in past abusers)--all indicating less employment viability in participants with past histories of prescription medication abuse.
Conclusions:
The abuse of prescription medications is associated with impaired functionality in the work arena.
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