It is well known that Corona has led to an increase in alcohol consumption. A health insurance company is now determining that the trend has continued for ten years. The inclination towards the bottle is particularly pronounced among employees between the ages of 35 and 39.
Alcohol addiction among employees has increased significantly over the past ten years and has picked up speed due to the corona pandemic. This is the result of a study by the commercial health insurance company KKH, which is available to the Funke newspapers. "The number of KKH-insured professionals with excessive alcohol consumption from 2011 to 2021 nationwide increased by around a third (32 percent), in the age group of 35 to 39 year olds even by 88.5 percent," it says Report. In addition to binge drinking, this also includes addiction, withdrawal symptoms and psychological behavioral disorders due to alcohol.
The length of the sick days of alcoholic employees increased to an average of 38 days in 2021, after an average of 31 days in 2018 and 2017. According to the report, the health insurance company recorded the peak of the past five years in alcohol-related illnesses in the first Corona year with almost 41 sick days. Overall, among the 700,000 working KKH-insured, doctors diagnosed around 8,200 patients with alcohol addiction last year - including more men than women.
Almost a third of working people also drink alcohol several days a week, nine percent of them even daily. The majority try to switch off from everyday life and reduce stress through alcohol, as a representative Forsa survey commissioned by the KKH has shown. The number of alcohol consumers has increased significantly since the beginning of the corona pandemic, summarizes Forsa. Since the virus outbreak, every ninth employee has been drinking more beer, wine, sparkling wine or hard liquor.
"Especially in times of crisis, intoxicants are a kind of coping mechanism because they relax, calm and supposedly drive away fears and worries," explained Michael Falkenstein, an expert on addiction issues at the KKH. Of course, people who already suffer from alcohol addiction or are prone to it are particularly at risk.
