Consumption and factors associated with drug use during the Covid-19 pandemic by university students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21527/2176-7114.2023.47.13745Keywords:
COVID-19, Automedicação, Uso de medicamentos, Pandemia, EstudantesAbstract
Objective: to assess drug use during the COVID-19 pandemic by university students and associated factors. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive, analytical study, carried out in four Higher Education Institutions in the state of Bahia, Northeast region of Brazil, from April to May 2020. The population consisted of 912 university students. The collection is carried out through an online form, using Google forms platform. The questions addressed socioeconomic, demographic and lifestyle aspects, information about the use of medications before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the motivation for their use. Pearsons chi-square test was performed and to assess the association between the categorical variables, in addition to univariate analysis using the binary logistic regression model through the odds ratio (OR) considering the 95% confidence interval (CI) and a significance level of 0.05. Results: 19.7% of the sample reported having started using some medication or supplement during a pandemic, among them, 68.2% justified the use due to news or indications or on their own. Vitamin consumption was the most prevalent (34.8%). It was observed that, being a student up to 30 years old, being female and being in clinical graduation, more likely to start using drugs in the pandemic. Conclusion: It was possible to observe a reduced frequency of medication consumption without professional guidance by university students, as the classes of medication most used by the participants were vitamins and herbal medicines.
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