Two fourth-year Marian medical students and a professor recently published a study on high-risk behaviors among U.S. medical students, finding that students more frequently engage in risky behaviors like binge drinking or tobacco and nicotine use as they progress through their academic programs.
The study also showed students increasingly seek counseling for mental health during medical school. The study contended that, despite previous studies on the mental health of medical students, “very little is known regarding practices these individuals engage in to relieve stress.”
The study, by students Harrison Smith and Mayar Azar, and Guang Xu, assistant professor of biostatistics and public health, all of the Marian University’s Tom and Julie Wood College of Osteopathic Medicine, was published this year in the MedEdPublish journal.
The study, “Risky Behaviors Amongst Medical Students Within the United States,” was based on an anonymous survey of 561 students attending medical school in 21 states at the start of the 2023 academic semester.
“Medical school is hard and stressful,” Smith said. “I don’t think there’s any way to change that about medical school.”
He said one of the interesting findings was that students engaged in behaviors that were a little riskier each year. Overall, 9.3% of first-year students said they engaged in more risky behaviors to cope with medical school, with that figure rising to 26.86% in the second year of school. Binge drinking was also an increasing practice among progressing students. Among first-year students, 10.5% admitted to increasing alcohol consumption, compared to 21.7% among second-year students, 24.8% among third, and 31.9% among fourth-year students.
Students did not significantly increase the use of tobacco products, according to the study, but did report more use of nicotine products such as vaping or nicotine pouches, especially in the third year (13.8%).
The study comprised 172 first-year students, 175 second, 145 third- and 69 fourth-year students. The study also found medical students faring worse in other areas while in school, including describing their diets as worse. First-year medical school students also reported engaging in less unprotected sexual intercourse with a non-long-term partner (3.5%) than fourth-year students (21.7%).
Mental health challenges were also seen as increasing over four years of medical school.
By their fourth year, two-thirds of students reported seeking mental health counseling, compared to 19.2% of first-year students. The study also noted that the use of antidepressants and anxiolytics increased as students progressed through school.
“We knew that there probably was going to be a stepwise increase, but we just didn’t expect it to be that extent,” Azar said. “I think it shows that it’s a need that many students are seeking out.”
The study authors suggested that medical schools offer discussions and campaigns about the potential harms of alcohol, tobacco/nicotine and recreational drug use as well as offer medical students free clinical counseling.