Health behaviors of medical students decline towards residency: how could we maintain and enhance these behaviors throughout their training

Table 1 Participants’ demographics and lifestyle habits

Variable	Students N = 621 (%)	Residents N = 931 (%)	Seniors N = 3447 (%)	Other^a N = 396 (%)	P Value
Age, years
< 35	99.8	57.3	1.0	8.1	< 0.001
35–44	0.2	38.2	21.8	8.3
45–54	–	2.6	27.0	19.7
55–64	–	1.4	32.0	39.9
65+	–	0.4	16.9	22.7
Unknown	–	0.1	1.2	1.3
Gender
Male	39.6	61.7	59.4	57.1	< 0.001
Perceived health Status
Excellent	20.8	11.4	11.7	6.9	< 0.001
Very good	50.7	37	34	25.2
Good	21.8	31.9	33.7	38.2
Fair	6.1	17.5	18.5	26.5
Poor	0.5	2.3	2.1	3.3
Perceived level of emotional stress
Very low	6.8	4	8.1	12.8	< 0.001
Low	27.4	14.3	20.9	20
Moderate	45.1	31.9	37.6	37.9
High	16.7	35.1	26.1	20.8
Very high	4.1	14.7	7.4	8.5
Body mass index (BMI)^b
Underweight (< 18.5 kg/m²)	7.4	3.6	1.2	1.1	< 0.001
Normal weight (≥18.5 to < 25 kg/m²)	79.1	53.7	41.5	29
Overweight (≥25 to < 30 kg/m²)	11.5	33.5	41.5	45.8
Obese (≥30 kg/m²)	2.0	9.2	15.8	24.1
Nutrition & eating habits (every day or almost every day)
Breakfast	64.1	38.6	55.4	61.2	< 0.001
Lunch	73.0	46.5	48.9	51.8	< 0.001
Mediterranean Diet	40.7	25.9	35.3	40.3	< 0.001
Drinking 8 cups of water	50.1	33.7	36.1	44.1	< 0.001
Processed food	19.3	27.6	15.7	13.6	< 0.001
Sweetened beverages	11.5	18.5	9.0	12.1	< 0.001
5 units of fruits & vegetables	25.8	20.6	35.7	41.8	< 0.001
Cigarette smoking Currently	10.7	15.5	6.5	10.9	< 0.001
Average hours of night sleep
≤ 5 Hours	8.1	43.3	20.5	22.8	< 0.001
6 Hours	25.2	43.6	53.6	51.0
7 Hours	44.4	12.3	23.3	21.5
≥ 8 Hours	22.3	0.8	2.6	4.7
Has a regular physician for personal care	76.2	42.2	42.2	48.7	< 0.001

^a This entity refers to physicians who do not hold a specialty, yet they are not residents or fellows. In Israel they are referred to as “general physicians”
Data on professional status were missing for 65 (1.3% of practicing physicians)
^b Height and/or weight data for the calculation of BMI were available for 608 (99.7%) of the students; for 890 (95.6%) of the residents; for 3209 (93.1%) of the seniors and 369 (93.2%) of the “others”

ISSN: 2045-4015