Change in alcohol consumption and physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic amongst 76 medical students

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic has affected physical activity and alcohol consumption among medical students. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey study among 76 students in their second year of medical school. The Wilcoxon sign-rank test and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used to assess the difference between groups. RESULTS: Of 76 respondents, 68% were women, 66% were single and 34% were co-habiting. The median age was 21 years. Overall alcohol consumption decreased during the pandemic year by 12 g/week. Overall physical activity did not significantly change. The decrease in alcohol consumption was mostly caused by a change seen in a high tertile, change was −96 g/week. Alcohol consumption decreased more in women than in men, p = 0.0001. CONCLUSIONS: It seems that alcohol consumption among medical students has decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic probably due to reduced social contacts and negative effect of social isolation. This decrease was seen especially among women and among students with higher alcohol consumption before the pandemic. Also, it seems that students had found their ways to remain active during the pandemic since the amount of leisure-time physical activity had not changed significantly.