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.
Keywords:
alcohol drinking; smoking; street drugs; students