Experimentation with psychoactive substances by public school students

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To analyze the prevalence of exposure to psychoactive substances in public students of basic education and its association with sociodemographic characteristics.METHODS This is a cross-sectional survey conducted from March to September 2015, involving 1,009 students of the basic and high school education in 20 public schools in the municipality of Aracaju, State of Sergipe, Brazil. The data have been compiled using questionnaires previously applied in national studies of the Brazilian Center for Psychotropic Drugs. The variables have been dichotomized for later logistic regression using the Chi-square test to analyze associations between experimentation with psychoactive substances and other sociodemographic variables; odds ratio and confidence intervals have also been calculated. The level of significance adopted was 5%.RESULTS We have identified that 69.6% of the students have experimented alcohol and 12.4% cigarettes. Age (≥ 15 years) has shown a significant association with experimentation with alcohol (p < 0.001) and cigarettes (p = 0.02), acting as risk factor in both cases (OR = 2.34 and 1, 78, respectively), but it acted as a protective factor for the use of inhalants (p = 0.03 and OR = 0.58) and weight loss medication (p = 0.006 and OR = 0.44). Religious practice had a significant association with experimentation with alcohol (p = 0.01), functioning as a protective factor (OR = 0.56).CONCLUSIONS We have concluded that the psychoactive substance most experienced by students was alcohol, followed by cigarettes, and chance for experimentation increases after the age of 15. Religious practice, in turn, acts as a protective factor for experimentation with alcohol.

Consumption of alcohol and drugs and school absenteeism among high school students of public schools

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“…The use of inhalant drugs is potentially dangerous to the adolescents' physical and mental development (20) . In Brazil, the practice of HED increased the risk of consumption of these drugs [OR = 5.02; 95%CI 2.57 -9.81] and also the consumption of marijuana and cocaine (22) .…”

Fatores associados ao uso de substâncias psicoativas em estudantes de uma universidade pública do sul do Maranhão

“…-Ser praticante de alguma religião foi fator protetor para Silva et al 11 , contrariamente à pesquisa realizada por Andrade et al 32 em estudantes do ensino médio;…”

Uso de drogas ilícitas por estudantes adolescentes: uma revisão narrativa / Illicit drug use by adolescent students: a narrative review

“…De acordo com artigos recentes, grande parte dos usuários de drogas ilícitas no mundo utiliza mais de um tipo de droga concomitante (5)(6) . Entre os estudantes brasileiros, o álcool é a droga mais utilizada (7) . É crescente o número de estudantes usuários de drogas, ilícitas e lícitas, em escolas no Brasil, principalmente nas públicas, com aumento considerável a partir dos 15 anos (7)(8) .…”

“…Entre os estudantes brasileiros, o álcool é a droga mais utilizada (7) . É crescente o número de estudantes usuários de drogas, ilícitas e lícitas, em escolas no Brasil, principalmente nas públicas, com aumento considerável a partir dos 15 anos (7)(8) . Em 2016, aproximadamente 80% das escolas públicas já haviam flagrado alunos utilizando, ou portando, drogas lícitas ou ilícitas em seus estabelecimentos (9) .…”