ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: People have been using psychoactive substances for a long
time . Over the last few years, this practice has spread among
university students ,
who use these substances to improve their
academic performance , relieve stress and increase concentration and
memory .
OBJECTIVES: To estimate the use of
psychoactive drugs among
healthcare students at a
higher education institution in the city of Passo Fundo (RS),
Brazil , and to ascertain the associated demographic and
lifestyle factors . DESIGN AND
SETTING: Cross-sectional study in a
higher education institution.
METHODS: We included 287 undergraduate
medicine and
dentistry students in this study. They answered a
self -administered
questionnaire regarding sociodemographic,
lifestyle and
health variables. The
statistical analysis used univariate and bivariate analyses with Pearson's
chi-square test (P-value < 0.05).
Multivariate analyses were used to estimate
odds ratios (OR) and their respective 95%
confidence intervals . The SPSS
software , version 20.0, was used.
RESULTS: The
prevalence of use of psychoactive substances among the
students was 24.7%. Among these
students , high frequencies of
psychoactive drugs had been prescribed by
physicians (95.8%) and for the purpose of
relaxation or stress relief (73.2%).
Women ,
medical students (compared with
dental students ) and participants with lower
academic performance were more likely to use
psychoactive drugs . After the multivariate
adjustment , the "
course " and "
academic performance " remained associated with use of
psychoactive drugs .
CONCLUSION: There was high
prevalence of
psychoactive drug use among the
students at the
higher education institution investigated. Some variables (
female sex ,
medical students and low
academic performance ) were associated with the outcome.