engleski

Trend of substance abuse among medical students at University of Zagreb from 2008/2009 to 2018/2019

Background: Risk behaviour of youth could have adverse health outcomes in adulthood, with an impact on individual and general population health. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and trend of cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and experimentation with illicit drugs among first year students at School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia. Methods: Retrospective study included first year medical students, from academic year 2008/2009 to 2018/2019. Data were collected each academic year by anonymous questionnaire, and analysed by descriptive (χ2 test, Fisher's exact test) and analytical statistics (simple linear regression model using the least squares method, t-test) with a significance level of α = 0.05. Results: Data analysis included a total of 3155 medical students (96.7%), 62.6% girls. Prevalence of daily smoking varied across generation from 11.6% in 2008/2009 to 9.6% in 2018/2019, and although a slight decline is observed, no statistically significant difference in daily smoking was found among generations of students from the academic year 2008/2009 to 2018/2019 (t- test=-0.169 ; P=0.869). Prevalence of occasional smoking ranged from 12.0% in 2008/2009 to 18.1% in 2018/2019, and showed a statistically significant increase (t-test=3.064 ; P=0.014), respectively. The prevalence of binge drinking ranged from 60.3% in 2008/2009 to 72.5% in 2018/2019, and showed a statistically significant increase (t-test=2.3515 ; P=0.043) across generation. The prevalence of illicit drug experimentation varied from 17.9% in 2008/2009 to 34.4% in 2018/2019, and showed a statistically significant increase (t-test = 3.0798 ; P = 0.013) across generations. Conclusion: Results showed increase in occasionally smoking, binge drinking and experimentation with illicit drugs among first- year medical students in the eleven-year period, and indicate the need of comprehensive public health interventions to reduce risky behavior in the student population.

university students ; alcohol ; smoking ; illicit drugs

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