Drug use, smoking, alcohol abuse and assertiveness of medical students from Poland and Belarus

Introduction: Human health is largely determined by factors such as human behavior and style of life. Purpose: To evaluate selected patterns of behavior of medical students, such as smoking, alcohol abuse, drug use, and their assertiveness. Materials and methods: The study included 338 students from Bialystok, Poland, and 339 from Grodno, Belarus. The original questionnaire, Fasterström's Nicotine Addiction Test, Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test, Drug Use Problem Test, and Assertiveness Test according to Grębski were all used. Results: In both groups, the level of cigarette dependence was low, with 10% of the students from Poland and 15% from Belarus being habitual cigarette smokers. No significant differences were found in the frequency of alcohol consumption between Polish (57%) and Belarusian (52%) students. Of the respondents, 3.3% from Poland and 1.5% from Belarus met the criteria of alcohol dependence according to the MAST test. There were no statistically significant differences in the frequency of drug use between the Polish (1.5%) and Belarusian (1.8%) students. The average level of assertiveness was 16.2 for Polish students and 15.4 for Belarusian students, which was a significant difference. Conclusions: These results indicate similar percentages of Polish and Belarusian students smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and use drugs. In addition, Polish students were more assertive than Belarusian students.