Perception of risk regarding drug use in university students

Abstract

Introduction: Drug use is a health problem that occurs more frequently in the young population; its prevalence increases every day. Currently, there is concern about the perception of risk of drug use in university students. Objective: Describe the risk perception of drug consumption in university students from the Manabí province in Ecuador. Methods: Descriptive and cross-sectional research; universe of 787 university students from the Manabí province in Ecuador. The sample was made up of 259 students. The survey was used as a data collection technique. The School Surveys on Drug Abuse from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime were used as a research instrument. Descriptive statistics were used to process the data. Results: An average age of 22.37 years was obtained, predominance of the female sex (65.25 %) and students who consume some type of drug (79.92 %). 91.30 % reported consumption of legal drugs (tobacco 43.63 % and alcohol 61.39 %); 31.26 % used medicinal drugs and 23.29 % used illicit drugs; Of them, 85.42 % reported marijuana use. 32.04 % had a low perception of the risk of drug use. Conclusions: In the group of university students from the Manabí province who are investigated, there is an increase in the consumption of licit, medicinal and illicit drugs due to a poor perception of the risk of consumption of these substances.

Keywords

• abuso de sustancia
• asunción de riesgos
• drogodependencia
• trastorno relacionado con sustancia.