Abstract
Abstract Objective Investigate the use of psychoactive substances at least once in life among students at the beginning and end of their courses and determine the associated factors. Methods A cross-sectional study conducted with a representative sample of 398 students in public university. The students answered a questionnaire validated for the evaluation of drug use and socio-demographic data. Poisson regression analysis was performed. Results A total of 56.3% and 13.3% of the students had used both legal and ilegal drugs. The following variables remained significantly associated with legal drug use in the final model: male sex (PR=1.48; 95%CI: 1.25-1.76), older age group (PR=1.23; 95%CI: 1.03-1.47), not living with parents (PR=1.20; 95%CI: 1.01-1.41), not having a religion (PR=1.37; 95%CI: 1.16-1.62) and taking a course in the health field (PR=1.33; 95%CI: 1.08-1.64). The following variables were significantly associated with ilegal drug use: male sex (PR=2.33; 95%CI: 1.35-4.02), older age group (PR=2.27; 95%CI: 1.28-4.02), higher monthly income (PR=1.73; 95%CI: 1.05-2.85) and not having a religion (PR=1.70; 95%CI: 1.02-2.84). Conclusion Legal and ilegal drug use at least once in life was associated with social factors, sex, age, income, religion, living situation and type of higher education course.
Highlights
The consumption of psychoactive substances is quite common among university students and varies from occasional use to dependence[1,2]
A total of 398 university students participated in the present study, corresponding to 99.5% of the total determined by the sample calculation
A total of 56.3% reported having experimented with legal drugs at least once in life and 13.3% reported having experimented with street drugs
Summary
The consumption of psychoactive substances is quite common among university students and varies from occasional use to dependence[1,2]. Knowledge on what population groups are associated with the use of psychoactive substances is necessary to the establishment of drug prevention programs based on reliable data from epidemiological studies, thereby allowing health policies to be directed in a more effective manner[4]. Previous studies have found a relationship between the male sex and older age with an increased consumption of drugs[2,5]. This relationship needs to be further clarified with regard to the early consumption of drugs
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