Determinants of Alcohol Consumption among Medical Students: Results from POLLEK Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: The use of alcohol is a serious public health concern all over the world, especially among young people, including students. Medical students are often exposed to higher levels of distress, which may lead to a higher prevalence of psychoactive substance use and psychiatric co-morbidities. Alcohol abuse can be one of the detrimental methods of coping with distress. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of alcohol use among medical students in Poland. Methods: We analyzed data from the POLLEK cohort study on alcohol consumption and possible influencing factors. Results: Among the 540 students included, 167 (30.9%) were hazardous drinkers (HAZ) according to the AUDIT test. The main identified risk factors of hazardous/harmful drinking were male gender and smoking cigarettes. Conclusions: Given the fairly widespread alcohol abuse among medical students, it is necessary to implement screening (and intervention in the next stage) programs in these groups.

Alcohol Use Disorders among Slovak and Czech University Students: A Closer Look at Tobacco Use, Cannabis Use and Socio-Demographic Characteristics

“…Therefore, Czech and Slovak prevention programs should take this finding into account and place more emphasis on male students. By comparing the results with the results of studies from other countries, it is possible to observe consistency with the Polish study, in which smoking and male gender characteristics proved to be the main determinants of harmful and hazardous drinking [ 15 ]. At this point, it is possible to emphasize the similarity of the countries belonging to the Visegrad Group.…”

“…These patterns of behaviour have many consequences, whether it is a threat to health and life [ 9 ], reduced academic performance, missed classes and lower grades, memory blackouts, changes in brain function, lingering cognitive deficits, sexual assaults [ 10 ], but also poor mental health [ 11 ] or social problems [ 12 ]. Regarding determinants, it is well known that the male gender characteristic is a significant factor associated with increased alcohol use [ 13 , 14 ] and is therefore considered a predictor of alcohol use disorders [ 15 , 16 ]. This justifies respecting gender differences in research.…”

“…This justifies respecting gender differences in research. In addition to gender characteristics, there are many other possible determinants of problematic alcohol use such as living away from parents’ home during semesters [ 1 , 17 ], parent attachment [ 18 ], smoking [ 15 ], mental health problems and satisfaction with life [ 19 , 20 ], or age of alcohol consumption onset [ 21 ]. The need to constantly monitor this problem is underlined by the fact that university students who suffer from problematic alcohol use with the risk of dependence are also characterized by the use of other addictive substances, such as tobacco, cannabis or cocaine [ 22 ].…”

PaLS Study: Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Usage among Polish University Students in the Context of Stress Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Students cope with stress in a variety of ways including adaptive strategies, e.g., alcohol consumption, smoking, and use of psychoactive substances [7]. Overusing alcohol is an alarming problem among young people, including students [8,9]. In comparison to the general adult population, their alcohol intake is significantly higher [10].…”

Nomogram reliability for predicting potential risk in postgraduate medical students with anxiety symptoms

“…When their satisfaction with life and subjective well-being are poor, the institution has a responsibility to immediately give ideological advice, professional support, and economic aid to those postgraduate medical students who are in need ( Casey et al., 2016 ). Finally, university counseling center would actively carry out psychological counseling and health education in the training process of postgraduates, encourage postgraduate medical students to find healthy emotional counseling methods, and assist them in the development of good lifestyle patterns that would lessen their dependence on cigarettes and alcohol in their day-to-day activities ( Balogh et al., 2018 ; Gajda et al., 2021 ).…”