The relationship to alcoholism of occupation, class and employment.

The status of the labor market is of importance in the employment of alcoholic persons, but is usually neglected in medical reports. The aim of the present paper is to assess the prevalence of alcoholism among men in different occupations and classes within as well as outside of the labor force. The data were taken from a Swedish general population study, the now twice-resurveyed Lundby 1947 cohort (N = 952). Information was collected through field interviews conducted independently of the administrative recording, but was checked afterwards against documentary records. Occupation, class and employment were independent variables; alcoholism was a dependent variable. It was found that alcoholism was most prevalent among workers (11.1%), among small scale entrepreneurs (13.7%) and among groups outside of the labor force (13.9%), particularly the subgroup early retired and unemployed (29.6%). The findings suggest a relation to current crisis tendencies in the Swedish "welfare"society.