The prevalence of alcohol consumption among the students newly enrolled at a public university

BACKGROUND: Alcohol is the number one toxic substance consumed by people of all age groups, which makes its use a public health problem. The overall trend shows that university students are those who suffer the most pressure. OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of alcohol use among students newly enrolled at a public university in Alagoas, Brazil. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted an analytical sectional study at the Federal University of Alagoas, with 1435 (44% of total) newly enrolled students of all courses in 2006. They answered a questionnaire based on the CAGE. Some points such as sex, age, marital status, course, housing, family characteristics and how drugs fit into in the student life were studied with the resources of EpiInfo version 3.3.2. The survey was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Alagoas (number 000878/2005-17). RESULTS: Of the group studied, 95.9% lived with family and 87.6% reported ever drinking alcohol at some time in their life. Of all the respondents, 55.4% of men reported having the habit of drinking with friends or colleagues (Odds = 0.71; CI = 0.58-0.88; P-value = 0.00088). Among all respondents, 17.7% of male students and 9.8% females skipped class after using alcohol (Odds = 0.52; CI = 0.38-0.72; P-value = 0.000023). The transition from adolescence to youth and study time at university is marked by greater vulnerability to alcohol abuse. The family is decisive for the initiation of alcohol use, and the university is a factor that increases the possibility of maintaining the practice. The fact that not all students were present in the classroom at the time of the application questionnaire may have limited the search because this was a sectional study. CONCLUSION: Alcohol consumption in this university is similar to that in other higher education institutions in the world, which is a cause for concern, since the external lesions are accentuated with the practice of using alcohol, characterizing the risk of violence.