Unsurprising New Research Finds Bar and Restaurant Employees at High Risk for Alcoholism
Bartenders can make a lot in tips, one of the upsides to working in the bar or restaurant industry. However, a new study suggests there is a major pitfall to employment in a business where booze is served: it is a common breeding ground for alcoholism.
New research, based on a questionnaire given to roughly 600 people in the bar/restaurant industry and about 400 in different lines of work, found that nearly 63 percent of those working in the booze-slinging business reported dangerous drinking habits.
While high levels of alcohol consumption were reported across the board, young women between the ages of 18 and 29 achieved the highest level of lushdom, with 82 percent displaying dangerous alcohol-consumption patterns. Their drunken male counterparts of the same age came in at 72 percent.
The study’s author, Swedish sociologist Thor Norstroem, says that the results come as no surprise to him, as previous studies conducted in both the United States and Norway have produced similar data.
Norstroem adds that the study results are due either to the bar/restaurant industry appealing particularly to drunkards, or the easy availability of alcohol matched with the high level of stress associated with that type of work.