Knowledge of the consequences and use of drugs for Costa Rica university students

Abstract

Objective: to determine the relationship between knowledge of consequences and drug use in undergraduate students of a university in San José, Costa Rica. Method: the cross-sectional study examines the demographic profile of the sample and the relationship between knowledge of consequences, drug use and academic performance. The study focuses on three types of drugs: alcohol, marijuana and cocaine. Three variables will be analyzed: demographic data, knowledge of consequences and use of drugs. Results: the relationship between knowledge of consequences and use of drugs was made using of the T-test. The sample had 272 students, 28.2% (n=77) of them were men and 71.4% were women (n=195). They were selected from the areas of social sciences (n=137, 50.2%), and from the area of health sciences (n=136; 49.8%). Alcohol was the most used drug (n=217, 79.8%), followed by marijuana (n=72, 26.6%) and finally cocaine (n=3, 1.1%) in the last 12 months. Conclusion: the results shown indicate that there is no significant relationship between such variables. The findings are important at the level of drug policies to support the development of new preventive strategies for drug use.