Introduction: Autism is considered a clinical condition distinct from the general population, while autistic traits may be continuously distributed across the population and referred to as "broader autism phenotype (BAP)." Few studies currently address autistic traits in the general population, and little is known about the relationship between the psychiatric condition and the BAP. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of autistic traits in a sample of undergraduate students. Methods: An online survey was applied containing sociodemographic questions and the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), a widely used scale to quantify autistic traits in the general population. The AQ has 50 items, divided into five subscales consisting of 10 items each that assess domains of cognitive strengths and difficulties related to ASD. Results: A total of 1.167 students answered the questionnaire, with a female predominance (70%). The most representative higher educational areas were the Health Sciences (54%), followed by Engineering (12.3%). A total of 44 participants (3.8%) reached the AQ cut-off of 32+ points, indicating the presence of autistic traits, 25 (54.3%) female, and 21 (45.6%) male students. The higher academic areas with the highest frequency of autistic traits were linguistics, letters, and arts (12.5%), followed by engineering (6.9%). Conclusion: Musicians, scientists, and mathematicians have higher AQ scores than students from different areas. The investigation of autistic traits in the general population might help understand the autism spectrum itself and discuss autism from an educational viewpoint.
INTRODUCTION: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were defined by the United Nations in the preparation of the 2030 Agenda and represent an attempt at a global effort to poverty eradication, environmental protection, sustainable development and the establishment of decent living conditions. In this context, the link between health and sustainable development stands out, especially when we bring planetary health, significant youth engagement and global health to the fore, it expands health promotion within the reach of all the SDGs. EXPERIENCE REPORT: The I Course on Sustainable Development Goals of International Federation of Medical Students Associations of Brazil (IFMSA Brazil) was developed between October 8 and 10 with the objective of promoting the debate on the SDGs in an integrated manner with the IFMSA Brazil's main discussion themes. The event was restricted to 40 participants for better theoretical-practical interaction and held by the Zoom platform. DISCUSSION: Considering the alarming finding of only 20.5% of the participants with any previous contact with SDGs in the curriculum, the discussion of this topic is very important. This fact is emphasized with the current scenario in Brazil, as recent research shows that the country will hardly reach the Agenda's goals, especially with regard to health, which is the scope of the target audience of the course. Social accountability promoted by medical schools is an important way of promoting SDGs by medical students. CONCLUSION: The event forms showed that the event fulfilled its purpose of presenting the SDGs to the participants and integrating them with practical ideas about its approach, thus enabling these students to promote changes in their local realities with the community.
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