Improving health and employment outcomes through workplace opioid policies

Washington University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

ABSTRACT This R34 research proposal will develop and test the feasibility of implementing guidelines on workplace policies to reduce opioid use and misuse among working age people, the population primarily affected by the opioid crisis. Proposed guidelines will reduce prescription opioid use, decrease chronic opioid use, promote recovery from opioid use disorder (OUD), and improve health-related employment outcomes. We will develop and test these guidelines among construction workers, an occupational group at uniquely high risk of opioid overdose and chronic use, accounting for 13-24% of opioid overdose fatalities among working populations. The proposed project is significant because it will define best practices for workplace opioid policies, adapt these policies to a high-risk occupational group, and evaluate the feasibility of implementing best practice workplace opioid guidelines via employment-based health insurance plans and employers. This proposed project will provide critical foundational information to design and conduct a future, fully powered randomized trial to implement and evaluate insurance and employment policy guidelines among joint labor-management health funds in the building trades. We will pursue this goal via three aims. Aim 1 will identify current best- practice health care and employment policies to prevent health and employment consequences of opioid use. Aim 2 will characterize the opioid problem in construction and adapt best-practice healthcare and employment policies to the unique needs of the construction industry. Aim 3 will evaluate the feasibility of implementing workplace opioid guidelines in the construction trades, and will define and collect measures of implementation and effectiveness. By describing best practices for workplace opioid policies and programs, developing guidelines adapted for a high risk industry, and demonstrating access to data, populations, and feasibility of the intervention, results from the proposed R34 will guide the planning for a future implementation and effectiveness trial of the workplace opioid guidelines with union health funds to measure the improvement in worker health and employment outcomes.