Researchers have quantified the cost of hangovers, which in Australia cause hundreds of thousands of days of absenteeism every year.
Dear hangover… Australian researchers have worked to quantify the cost of the difficult tomorrow induced by excessive alcohol or drug use. Their very serious work, published in the journal Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, reveal that partygoers generate exorbitant expenses for society.
In fact, for many, drunken evenings end with a morning in bed (or more), sleeping off the excesses of the day before. This has the unfortunate consequence of increasing absenteeism rates at work.
11.5 million “sick” leave
Researchers from the “National Center for Education and Training on Addiction” have thus scrutinized the data of more than 12,000 people, from theNational Strategic Drug Survey carried out in 2013. This survey asks citizens about their consumption of psychoactive substances and their induced behaviors.
In this large survey, participants said they missed a total of 11.6 million days due to a hangover incompatible with intellectual or physical activity. Drug-related raids caused 854,000 days of absenteeism.
However, according to the researchers, these “sick days” generated a cost of 3 billion dollars annually, if we include the salaries paid while consumers recover their minds and their livers, as well as the loss of productivity related to the ‘absenteeism.
Hangovers that last
It must be said that the participants did not go hand in hand during their evenings. While more than half (56%) said they had safer alcohol consumption (less than four drinks on one occasion), 27% drink between 5 and 10 drinks during the same evening, and 9% go down more than 11. As for illicit drugs (cannabis excluded), 7% consume them annually, 3% monthly and 5% every week.
The problem, say the authors, is that the consequences of these festivities often spread over several days – something that night owls tend to forget. For example, consumers who mix alcohol and amphetamines (MDMA, speed …) experience “Weepy Wednesday” (literally “tearful Wednesday”), those days when mood darkens and motivation approaches zero level. , and which occur a few days after taking the weekend drugs.
Alcohol lovers are not exempt from these delayed descents. The authors thus insist on the impact left by massive alcoholizations, from which the body takes several days to recover. “People don’t often admit it, but drinking large amounts can cause severe gastrointestinal upset, and other problems that they don’t always associate with alcohol,” they write.
According to the researchers, this work is not intended to show that partiers are a plague for society and for businesses. Nor to whistle the end of soaked recess – a difficult initiative to set up, it must be admitted. However, they believe that the workplace has a role to play in preventing hangovers, through targeted information.
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