and colleagues 12 suggests that 10% of medical students become problem drinkers. Kay and associates 13 reported that the medical students they surveyed slept too little, had poor diets, and believed that the medical school experience was detrimental to their health. Other primary concerns and stresses identified by medical students include lack of time for health-promoting activities such as recreation and social contact with family and friends and a preoccupation with studying to the exclusion

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... of everything else, especially in the first year of medical school. 14 -16 Indeed, medical students are a population under stress. The literature is replete with reports on the unique stresses experienced by medical students and the impact these stresses have on their behaviors and lives. Some recent research has focused on health-promoting behaviors of medical students. Nevertheless, the available information has not been adequate to present a comprehensive picture of how medical students attempt to cope with the stresses in their daily lives. To shed some light on this situation, we designed a study to investigate the life-styles of firstand secondyear osteopathic medical students, the perceptions they have regarding their physical health and psychological well-being, the methods they use to combat stresses in their daily lives, and other life-style patterns such as nutrition, sleeping habits, alcohol and drug use, exercise, and leisure activities. The evolution of the study reported here was influenced heavily by the work of Wolf and Kissling. 1 In their study, they examined freshman medical students' stress-coping effectiveness in relation to physical and psychological health, sleep patterns, and physical, leisure, and recreational activities. We found multiple studies that describe high stress levels, substance abuse, and lack of time for recreation and social contact as significant issues among medical students. We therefore undertook the present study in an attempt to quantify these problems. Three questions guided the study: What perceptions do firstand second-year medical students have regarding their physical health and psychological well-being? What mechanisms