Elsevier

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Volume 85, Issue 2, 8 November 2006, Pages 123-128
Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Trends in medical student use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs in an Irish university, 1973–2002

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2006.03.016Get rights and content

Abstract

Questionnaire surveys of medical students in an Irish university were carried out in 1973 (n = 765), 1990 (n = 522) and 2002 (n = 537), with differentiation of western students (e.g., from the Republic of Ireland, the UK, or Australia) and non-western students (e.g., Malaysia). We report on changes in tobacco smoking, drinking and drug-taking over three decades, and we note that, among western students, estimated prevalence of being a current smoker has declined overall from 28.8% in 1973 to 15.3% in 1990 to 9.2% in 2002 (p < 0.001), falling in both males (p < 0.001) and females (p < 0.01). Ex-smokers rose from 5.9% to 15.1% between 1990 and 2002, corresponding with the decline in current smokers. The prevalence of current drinkers has risen over the period, to 82.5% among western students in 2002 (p < 0.05); female drinking has increased steadily since 1973 (p < 0.001), and the overall proportion of CAGE-positive drinkers has risen since 1990 (p < 0.001). The mean weekly alcohol consumption has risen in both sexes since 1990 (males 14.3 units to 19.4, p < 0.01; females 6.0 to 9.5, p < 0.001). There was an increase in the proportion of students ever offered drugs between 1973 and 2002 (p < 0.001).

Although smoking rates have fallen, our findings show a marked increase in alcohol and drug consumption between 1973 and 2002. Personal misuse of addictive substances by doctors may mean that doctors will fail to take misuse by patients seriously. A need for preventative and ameliorative action during the medical school years is clear.

Section snippets

Background

Medical students are exposed to both active and subliminal personal health education during their undergraduate years. Several studies have examined the prevalence of smoking, alcohol intake or drug misuse in medical students (Brynner, 1967, Collier and Beales, 1989, Croftons et al., 1994, McAuliffe et al., 1984a, McAuliffe et al., 1984b) at a given point in time. The changing trends over time in attitude and behaviour that have developed in the population of medical students towards alcohol,

Methods

Using similar methodologies and survey instruments, three surveys of medical school students in University College Dublin were carried out over a 29-year period. A census of all students present in the relevant classes was taken. No prior sample size calculations were made but the anticipated recruitment of approximately 500 students per survey gave a confidence interval width in the region of ±2.5% to ±4.5% on point estimates of prevalence ranging from 10% to 50%.

Apart from the initial survey

Results

The socio-demographic characteristics of students surveyed are shown in Table 1. The proportion of female students nearly doubled between 1973 and 2002. In 2002 western country of origin was reported by 81.4% of respondents.

Trends in smoking practices are shown in Table 2. A reduction in smoking prevalence has occurred between 1973 and 2002 (western) overall (p < 0.001) and in both males (p < 0.001) and females (p < 0.01), to an overall prevalence of 9.2% in 2002 (among western students only).

Discussion

This study gives a unique overview of the changing trends in the lifestyle choices of medical students over three decades. We see a fall in smoking prevalence, a major increase in numbers of drinkers and amounts of alcohol consumed and a rise in the proportions offered and using illicit drugs.

While we noted a trend towards younger age at starting smoking in female students, one encouraging feature of this research was the significant trend towards reduction in smoking prevalence and reduction

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