The Changes in Stress Coping, Alcohol Use, Cigarette Smoking and Physical Activity during COVID-19 Related Lockdown in Medical Students in Poland

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has significantly limited social contacts, thus contributing to deepening isolation. Therefore, SARS-CoV-2 exerted on humanity not only a physical impact but also a psychological one, often increasing the feeling of stress. The long-term effects of such a state could include the management of depression, so our study aimed to analyze groups of medical students in different periods of the pandemic (at the beginning of the pandemic, after half a year of the pandemic, after one year of the pandemic) in order to assess the impact of this situation on coping with stress. The impact of the pandemic on the development of stress factors such as alcohol consumption and smoking was also studied. The level of physical activity in the context of coping with an uncertain situation was also assessed. The impact of the above-mentioned factors on the behavior of students, including the Mini-COPE questionnaire, AUDIT test, the Fagerström test and the IPAQ questionnaire was analyzed. It has been shown that as the pandemic and the lockdown progressed, patients consumed more often or larger amounts of alcohol, smoked more cigarettes, and levels of physical activity decreased. All these factors may have had some impact on the deterioration of coping with stress among the respondents, which would indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly contributed to an increase in the sense of stress among the students.