The shortage of doctors has become a worrying problem in Tunisia. It is influenced by the phenomenon of immigration which remains poorly studied despite its magnitude.

To describe the migration intentions of Tunisian young doctors and to identify the associated factors that influence their decisions.

This is a cross-sectional, analytical survey conducted between January and June 2019. It included all young doctors practicing in academic hospitals of Sousse (Tunisia). Data collection was based on a standardized self-administered questionnaire.

A total of 182 valid questionnaires were collected. The median age was 26.9±2.5 years and the sex-ratio was 0.47. Immigration projects were reported by 38.5% of participants. The main destination was France (36.3%%). The main contributing factors were marital status (p<10-3), resident status (p=0.002), surgical specialty (p<10-3), personal dissatisfaction (p=0.003), underpayment (p<10-3), workload and difficult work conditions (p<10-3), lack of appropriate training (p<10-3), financial crisis and economic instability (p<10-3), lack of a clear strategy for the healthcare system (p=0.005) and the impression by the model of other doctors who left Tunisia (p=0.01).

The rate of migration intentions expressed in this study highlights the emergent need of interventions emanating from the Tunisian health-care system’s problems in order to stop the flow of young doctors towards developed countries in quest of better conditions.

No significant relationships.

The COVID19 outbreak has disrupted the mental health of resident doctors who had to care for patients. Eating disorders were among these reported mental health problems.

To screen binge eating disorder among young Tunisian doctors and its associated factors.

We conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical online-based survey, from April 19, 2020, to May 5, 2020 on 180 medical residents in training. We sent the survey via a google form link. We used a self-administered anonymous questionnaire containing sociodemographic and clinical data of young doctors. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) criteria were used to assess Binge-Eating Disorder.

Among 180 young doctors who enrolled the survey, 70,2% were female, 16% were married. The mean age was 29 years. 51,1% were frontline caregivers, working directly in diagnosing, treating or caring for patients with coronavirus disease. Among our participants, 5% presented anxiety disorder, another 5 % presented depression disorder and 1,7% had eating disorder. Binge eating disorder were present among 8,9 % of participants and it was associated to personal history of eating disorder (7,7% vs 1,1%, p<10-3), past history of depression disorder (7,2% vs 3,3%, p=0.008), exposure to media or news about coronavirus outbreak (0.5% vs 8,3%, p=0.04).

Our study indicated the evolving proportion of binge eating disorder among young doctors. Screening eating disorder is important in order to prevent related physical health problems.