Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Drug Use in Healthcare Professionals: A Systematic Review

Healthcare professionals are exposed to stressful situations that may favor substance use vulnerability. This systematic review aims to synthesize the risk and protective factors associated with use, abuse, and dependence of alcohol, tobacco, psychoactive drugs, and cannabis in healthcare professionals. Following PRISMA recommendations, a systematic search was performed in PsycINFO, Web of Science, PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane Library. The search yielded 1523 studies, of which 19 were selected. The identified risk factors were demographic factors (i.e. male gender, and single/divorced marital status), psychopathological factors, social factors, positive attitudes toward drugs, unhealthy lifestyle habits, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the coexistence of the use of several substances. The protective factors were demographic factors (i.e. ethnicity and having dependent children), healthy lifestyle habits, and workplace anti-drug policies (i.e. restriction of tobacco use). These findings highlight the need for preventive actions against drug use in healthcare professionals to improve their health and reduce the possible negative impact on their healthcare practice. Knowledge of modifiable risk and protective factors allows their incorporation as components in preventive actions, and non-modifiable factors (e.g. demographic variables) may contribute to the detection of groups of greater vulnerability to propose selective prevention actions in this population.