Job Loss, Unemployment and the Incidence of Hazardous Drinking during the Late 2000s Recession in Europe among Adults Aged 50–64 Years

BACKGROUND: To estimate the incidence of hazardous drinking in middle-aged people during an economic recession and ascertain whether individual job loss and contextual changes in unemployment influence the incidence rate in that period. METHODS: Longitudinal study based on two waves of the SHARE project (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe). Individuals aged 50–64 years from 11 European countries, who were not hazardous drinkers at baseline (n = 7,615), were selected for this study. We estimated the cumulative incidence of hazardous drinking (≥40g and ≥20g of pure alcohol on average in men and women, respectively) between 2006 and 2012. Furthermore, in the statistical analysis, multilevel Poisson regression models with robust variance were fitted and obtained Risk Ratios (RR) and their 95% Confidence Intervals (95%CI). RESULTS: Over a 6-year period, 505 subjects became hazardous drinkers, with cumulative incidence of 6.6 per 100 persons between 2006 and 2012 (95%CI:6.1–7.2). Age [RR = 1.02 (95%CI:1.00–1.04)] and becoming unemployed [RR = 1.55 (95%CI:1.08–2.23)] were independently associated with higher risk of becoming a hazardous drinker. Conversely, having poorer self-perceived health was associated with lower risk of becoming a hazardous drinker [RR = 0.75 (95%CI:0.60–0.95)]. At country-level, an increase in the unemployment rate during the study period [RR = 1.32 (95%CI:1.17–1.50)] and greater increases in the household disposable income [RR = 0.97 (95%CI:0.95–0.99)] were associated with risk of becoming a hazardous drinker. CONCLUSIONS: Job loss among middle-aged individuals during the economic recession was positively associated with becoming a hazardous drinker. Changes in country-level variables were also related to this drinking pattern.