Although the literature suggest that alcohol misuse is common in medical students, few studies have investigated it in French medical residents. The present study aims at exploring the prevalence and associated characteristics of alcohol misuse in French medical residents

Medical residents working in one of 3 University Hospital in France (n=292) were invited to fill out an online survey using the mailing lists of the participating centers. Alcohol use was assessed with the 10-item self-report Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) (range 0-40) which provides scores for hazardous alcohol use, dependency symptoms and harmful alcohol use. Background variables were also collected.

Mean participants’ age was 27.7 (SD=1.7) and 65.5% (n=190) of them were of female gender. Mean weekly hours of work at the hospital was 57.8 (SD=13.6) and mean number of validated rotations at the time of the assessment was 5.1 (SD=2.4). Mean AUDIT score was 4.5 (SD=3). Forty-four (15.1%) participants scored on the AUDIT above the cut-off (>7) for problem use and 51 of them (17.5%) reported binge drinking at least once a month. AUDIT total score was positively correlated with male gender (r=0.26) and cannabis use (r=0.40) while negatively associated with weekly hours of work (r=-0.12) and number of rotations validated (-0.13). In a regression analysis, only male gender predicted alcohol use.

Alcohol problem use is prevalent in French medical residents, is predicted by male gender and is strongly associated with cannabis use. Future research is needed to confirm these results.