Law enforcement officers' involvement level in Hurricane Katrina and alcohol use

Details

• Personal Author:
  Andrew, Michael E. ; Burchfiel CM ; Heavey SC ; Homish GG ; McCanlies E ; Mnatsakanova A ; Violanti JM
• Description:
  The purpose of this work is to examine the relationship between alcohol use and level of involvement during Hurricane Katrina among law enforcement officers, and to investigate whether marital status or previous military training offer resilience against negative outcomes. Officers in the immediate New Orleans geographic area completed surveys that assessed their involvement in Hurricane Katrina and alcohol use (Alcohol Use and Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score). Negative binomial regression models were used to analyze level of hazardous alcohol use; interactions were tested to examine protective influences of marriage and prior military training (controlling for age and gender). There was a significant association between heavy involvement in Hurricane Katrina and having a greater AUDIT score (exp(B)[EB]=1.81; 95% CI: 1.03, 3.17; p<0.05), indicating higher levels of hazardous alcohol use. Contrary to original hypotheses, marital status and military training were not protective against alcohol use (p>0.05). These results illustrate an association between law enforcement officers' heavy involvement during Hurricane Katrina and greater levels of hazardous alcohol use when compared to officers with low or moderate involvement. This has important treatment implications for those with high involvement in disasters as they may require targeted interventions to overcome the stress of such experiences. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Alcoholic Beverages Emergency Responders Law Enforcement Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Alcoholic-beverages Alcohols Author Keywords: Alcohol Consumption Emergency-responders First Responders Hazards Hurricane Katrina Law-enforcement-workers Law Enforcement Military-personnel Models Natural Disaster Police-officers Rescue-workers Stress

  More +
• ISSN:
  1522-4821
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  HELD - Health Effects Laboratory Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  267-273
• Volume:
  17
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20046180
• Citation:
  Int J Emerg Mental Health Hum Resil 2015 Apr; 17(1):267-273
• Contact Point Address:
  Sarah Cercone Heavey, Department of Community Health and Health Behavior, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
• Email:
  Cercone6@buffalo.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Performing Organization:
  State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20100901
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience
• End Date:
  20130831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8809a331ea1bb7dae0f6bce8ec4a92ec0301eafe357c5de259c3d52ab613f5603c82205a79d9014b5825c4d13a0dfb6830ef748dab96fd6414aa98d9b3c538e9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/201307/cdc_201307_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 368.78 KB ]