Assessing the Association between Pre-Employment Drug Screening and a Reduction in Workplace Accidents and Injuries

<p>The purpose of this quasi-experimental quantitative study was to expand on previous scholarly work demonstrating enhanced workplace health and safety through a reduction of workplace accidents and injuries. The association between pre-screening employees for drug use and accident and/or injury rates was assessed. Using two subsets of archival records it was investigated whether or not lower workplace accident/injury rates were associated with records representing employees pre-screened for drug use compared with records representing employees who were not pre-screened. Archive data records were randomly sampled creating a group of 300 records representing employees pre-screened for drug use before hire testing negative and a comparison group of 300 records representing employees not undergoing any drug screening. Average annual accident rate for the pre-screened employees' subset (2.16%) was less than one-half the rate for the non-screened employees' subset (4.50%). A Mann-Whitney <em>U </em>test showed pre-screened employee accident/injury rate <em>{Mdn </em>= 2) differed from non-screened employees <em>{Mdn - </em>2 <em>U= </em>40950.0<em>p < </em>0.0013 <em>r </em>= .13). A Kruskal-Wallis test indicated significant effect of gender (H(2) = 7.2924 <em>p < </em>.0001) and industry sector (H(2) = 12.1231 <em> p - </em>.0172) on the non-screened employee subset. A Mann-Whitney <em>U </em>test showed positive post-accident rates of pre-screened employees <em>{Mdn </em>= 99) differed from non-screened employees <em>{Mdn </em>= 99 <em>U - </em>40864.0 <em>p </em>< 0.0011 <em>r </em>= .13). A Kruskal- Wallis test indicated significant effect of gender (H(2) = 7.6620 <em>p < </em>.0001) and industry sector (H(2) = 12.7233/? = .0119) on the non-screened subset. A Pearson's Chi-Square Test for Independence revealed industry classification assignment as not independent X2(12 <em>N = </em>600) = 109.26 <em>p </em>< .05. Study findings indicate a policy of including pre-employment drug screening in workplace drug testing programs is good practice based on the association of pre-employment screening with workplace accident and injury reduction. Future research is recommended examining how gender and industry sector assignment affect workplace accidents and injuries and if a relationship between pre-employment drug screening and post-accident drug testing enhance the effects of both tests.</p>