ANALYSIS OF THE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION BY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN HEALTH-RELATED COURSES

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the epidemiological profile and alcohol consumption patterns of undergraduate students in health-related courses. The methodology was an exploratory descriptive study, using field research and a mixed-methods approach to gather information on the knowledge of alcohol consumption among undergraduate students in health-related courses at Iguaçu University - Campus I - Nova Iguaçu/RJ. This project was submitted to the Research Ethics Committee (CEP) of Iguaçu University and approved under CAAE 75210223.5.0000.8044, opinion number 6.477.955 dated October 31, 2023, to proceed with data collection. As a result, we obtained 326 participants, distributed as follows: 249 (76.4%) female and 77 (23.6%) male, aged between 18 and 54 years. Regarding their education, participants were students from the following courses: Nursing (n = 178; 54.6%), Medicine (n = 87; 26.7%), Nutrition (n = 3; 0.9%), Physiotherapy (n = 11; 3.4%), Pharmacy (n = 19; 5.8%), Dentistry (n = 12; 3.7%), Physical Education (n = 7; 2.1%), and Aesthetics (n = 9; 2.8%). Regarding alcohol consumption, 141 participants (43.3%) reported not consuming alcoholic beverages, while 153 (46.9%) stated that they did. The discussion revealed that alcohol consumption can have detrimental effects, such as health problems, financial difficulties, family issues, distrust, judgmental biases, missed opportunities, and increased unemployment. These consequences generate feelings of frustration. We concluded that it is important to have ongoing programs and lectures and workshops that raise awareness and alert students about the harmful effects of alcoholic beverages, as well as to conduct more research focused on the results of these interventions.