Prevalência do consumo de substâncias psicoativas lícitas e ilícitas por estudantes de uma universidade pública entre 2005 e 2009

Abstract

The goal of this study were: a) to describe the changes in the patterns of the current consumption (in the past 30 days preceding the three phases of this study) of licit and illicit psychoactive substances by a group of students at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, at different moments of their university life; and b) to evaluate the associations between consumption and the semester attended, by controlling student, socio-demographic and personal variables related to the use of psychoactives. Three different surveys were conducted with the students from UFJF in the years of 2005, 2007 and 2009. The investigational instrument was a semistructured, self applied and anonymous questionnaire containing the following variables: student related, social and demographic, personal, about consumption quantities, frequency, mode of administration and circumstances related to the use of psychoactive substances. This survey also included the four questions listed in the CAGE questionnaire which is used for alcoholism tracking. The statistical analyses were, initially, exploratory and descriptive and subsequently evaluated by the stratification of the current consumption results for licit and illicit substances through the other variables; and lastly binary logistic regression was used to verify the significance of the variables. The first survey conducted in 2005 with the expectation of reaching 1,205 students, was completed with 911 participants. The second survey, conducted in the first semester of 2007, included 582 students attending the fifth semester who effectively participated. The third phase of this study reached a total of 280 students that reached the ninth semester and were enrolled in one of the 13 undergraduate courses at the UFJF. The results indicate a linear increase in the pattern of consumption of licit psychoactives during university life (p = 0.01). One out of the six studied variables that modulated the current consumption of licit substances is directly related to the student life environment: the performance selfassessment was still the variable that represented the reason influencing the least over changes in the current consumption. On the other hand, the use of illicit substances showed a slight reduction in the prevalence of consumption during the 3 years studied (p = 0.128). Among the three variables that were associated to the consumption of illicit substances, the variable "to perform leisure activities at home" indicated a level of protection towards the current use of illicit psychoactives (60% reduction); the greatest chances of consumption were observed among homosexual or bisexual students (RC = 3.07) and among students who seek for persons other than their mother to ask for help in the event of any personal problem (RC = 2.00). The results indicate the necessity of studies on this matter with more consistent assessment of the influence of specific aspects of the student life over the consumption of psychoactive substances before just accepting the need to develop broader preventive programs.