Heavy episodic drinking and self-reported increased alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic: a spotlight on frontline and essential workers in Canada.

Introduction: There is evidence that some frontline and essential workers have increased their alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, this has not been examined in Canada.

Methods: Using the Survey on COVID-19 and Mental Health 2020, weighted prevalence and 95% confidence intervals of self-reported increased alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking were calculated for each of the population groups: frontline workers, essential workers, and nonfrontline or essential workers (NFEW). Logistic regression was used to examine the associations between social determinants of health, mental health and alcohol use for each group.

Results: The prevalence of increased alcohol consumption and past-month heavy episodic drinking did not differ across frontline workers, essential workers and NFEW. For the three groups, nonracialized group members had significantly higher odds for both outcomes. Screening positive for either generalized anxiety disorder or mood disorder was significantly associated with increased alcohol consumption across the three groups. For frontline and essential workers, females had significantly lower odds of heavy episodic drinking compared to males. For essential workers only, living in a rural area was significantly associated with lower odds of increased alcohol use, and screening positive for posttraumatic stress disorder was significantly associated with increased odds of heavy episodic drinking. For frontline workers only, living in a rural area was significantly associated with lower odds of heavy episodic drinking.

Conclusion: While frontline and essential workers were not more likely to report increased alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking compared to NFEW, there were some differences in factors associated with alcohol use. Such findings demonstrate the benefit of examining each group separately to provide information for targeted prevention strategies.