Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, universities have had to adopt remote education, a strategy that caused sudden changes of routine for everyone involved in academia. To assess the profile of medicine use by the employees of a Brazilian public university during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cross-sectional study at a Brazilian public university. Employees were invited to answer an online self-administered questionnaire, containing questions on sociodemographic features, medicine use, mental health and lifestyle habits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The outcome variable was the use of medicines stratified according to occupation. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate (Poisson regression) statistical analyses were performed. A total of 372 employees participated in the study and use of medicine was reported by 53.2%. Among professors, suicide attempts (prevalence ratio [PR], 1.81; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.20-2.74), physical activity (PR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.11-2.11) and poor self-rated health (PR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.01-1.66); and among technicians, decreased workload during the COVID-19 pandemic (PR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.00-1.99), excess body weight (PR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.02-1.88) and poor self-rated health (PR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.14-1.92) were positively associated with use of medicines. In addition, among technicians, engaging in physical activity (PR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.46-0.78) was a protective factor against medicine use. The profile of medicine use among these employees was similar to that of the Brazilian population. However, some associated factors may have been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, thus highlighting the need to examine this topic in a longitudinal study.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by exponential transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, has had serious consequences worldwide.[1,2] In Brazil, since the first case was reported, the number of infections and deaths has been increasing, reaching 18,557,141 confirmed cases on June 30, 2021, at 7 pm
Study design and participants This cross-sectional study was integrated with a project on anxiety and depression among university students (PADu) that was conducted by researchers at the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), titled “Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental and nutritional health and on the home food environment of the academic community: longitudinal evaluation - PADu-COVID”
The population studied had a high level of education, the prevalence of medicine use was similar to that of the general population in Brazil
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by exponential transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, has had serious consequences worldwide.[1,2] In Brazil, since the first case was reported, the number of infections and deaths has been increasing, reaching 18,557,141 confirmed cases on June 30, 2021, at 7 pm. In order to reduce the transmission rates, some coping measures have been adopted, such as quarantine or social distancing,[4,5] and Brazilian universities have adopted distance learning. This strategy has caused sudden changes to the routines of all people involved in academia.[6]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, universities have had to adopt remote education, a strategy that caused sudden changes of routine for everyone involved in academia. OBJECTIVE: To assess the profile of medicine use by the employees of a Brazilian public university during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some associated factors may have been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need to examine this topic in a longitudinal study
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