Under the Influence? Drugs and the American Work Force (1994) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Pages 269-283
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 271... ...
A stronger (or better) design is one in which an observed association (between drug use and job performance, for example)
|
From page 272... ...
, and so on. In contrast, an experiment that found a reduction in positive drug tests at a large number of randomly selected work sites that implemented a particular prevention policy compared with smaller or no reduction at other randomly selected work sites would be subject to few alternative explanations.
|
From page 273... ...
; to the increased opportunity to purchase drugs that comes with higher income (reverse causation) ; or to exaggerated reports of wages by drug users
|
From page 274... ...
would tell us little about the impact of drug use on job performance, since we would be wrong in supposing that those who had tested negative were not using drugs, and it might be lack of motivation which explained the poor performance of those who tested positive. (The results would, however, inform employers about the utility of a drug test as a preemployment screening device for identifying poor employment risks.
|
From page 275... ...
With regard to work force drug use, they can be used efficiently to assess the effectiveness of work-site drug use intervention programs (e.g., educational, drug testing) or work-site drug treatment programs.
|
From page 276... ...
For example, it does not control for events around the time of the intervention that might explain changes in behavior. A firm that established through drug testing over time that its workers were abusing cocaine and also established a program to combat cocaine use around the time of Len Bias's death would not know whether a steep drop in cocaine use was due to its program or the publicity that Bias's death engendered about the dangers of cocaine use.
|
From page 277... ...
APPENDIX A 277 ization is properly carried out, one can have confidence to a known degree of statistical probability that the units receiving the treatment are like the units serving as controls with respect to the myriad unmeasured factors that might affect the behavior of interest. Consider, for example, a field experiment in which, of 500 workers under treatment for drug abuse, 250 are randomly assigned to follow-up treatment and the other 250 are not offered follow-up.
|
From page 278... ...
. Laboratory studies can generally randomize individuals to conditions and thus achieve substantial internal validity by using large numbers of participants.
|
From page 279... ...
APPENDIX A 279 design is so flawed that many alternative explanations of the observed difference are plausible, then the study is a weak basis for policy decisions. Finally, even well-designed studies that identify substantial significant relationships do not necessarily mean that an intervention is justified.
|
From page 280... ...
Moreover, problems of error in measurement are important because the confounding effects of poorly measured variables will not be adequately adjusted when multivariate models are used in epidemiologic and quasi-experimental analyses (Dwyer, 1983~. Understanding the characteristics of such errors is crucial in efforts to use multivariate models Unit of Analysis The unit of intervention, and thus of statistical inference, in workplace prevention studies is often whole companies or work sites within companies.
|
From page 281... ...
Urinalysis test results are not sensitive or specific measures of those latter constructs. Furthermore, drug testing is not always possible, and when it is, even if the sample of those tested is not biased by a need for cooperation, measurement of metabolic residues is problematic when the half-life of residues is shorter or longer than the time period of interest.
|
From page 282... ...
As discussed in detail in Chapter 6, psychological tests designed to reveal current or predict future drug use have been shown to have moderate levels of validity. Combining this moderate validity with the relatively low prevalence of drug use in work site populations means that if psychological tests are used to identify drug users, false positive rates can be expected to be high.
|
From page 283... ...
57. Rockville, Md.: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.