Methodological issues in workplace substance abuse prevention research

Substance abuse among working adults represents billions of dollars in prev entable health cave costs and industry financial loss. Therefore, it is imp erative to develop and test effective substance abuse prevention programs f or the workplace. However applied workplace substance abuse prevention rese arch is fraught with numerous methodological challenges. This article highl ights a number of these challenges, which include (1) reaching a broad audi ence with prevention messages, (2) handling the concerns of the employer (3 ) collecting substance use data in the workplace (4) accessing and using re cords-based data, and (5) linking survey and records-based data. Using exam ples from the authors' ongoing research assessing a workplace health promot ion and substance abuse prevention program funded by the Substance Abuse an d Mental Health Services Administration's Center for Substance Abuse Preven tion, the authors address these challenges.