Oliveira Ana Paula, Luis Henrique, Luís Luís Soares, Nobre Joana Rita, Pinho Lara Guedes, Albacar-Riobóo Núria, Sequeira Carlos
Health School, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal.
Faculty of Nursing, University of Rovira e Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Spain.
Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Feb 19;11(4):619. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11040619.
The mental health of higher education students is a constant concern, and the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19 has intensified this concern. The social measures imposed to control and minimize the disease have led, among other things, to the reconfiguration of higher education students' academic life habits, which has naturally altered their emotional balance, mental health, and substance abuse. This cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study assesses the influence of higher education students' personal characteristics on their (self-reported) use of addictive substances (alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and pharmaceutical drugs) before and during their first compulsory confinement in Portugal, as well as its relationship with mental health. An online questionnaire was applied between 15 April and 20 May 2020, to students from various study cycles of higher education institutions in one region of Portugal (northern area of Alentejo), which included the Mental Health Inventory in its reduced version (MHI-5) and questions (constructed by the authors) on personal characterization and on the use of addictive substances before and during confinement. The convenience sample included 329 mostly female health care students between the ages of 18 and 24. In our results, we found a statistically significant decrease in tobacco, alcohol, and drug use; however, there was an increase in tobacco use among older students and an increase in anxiolytic use among students with higher academic achievement and among students who exhibited more active social behavior in the period prior to confinement. Students who took anxiolytics during confinement had higher MHI-5 scores and students who used the most addictive substances during confinement had lower MHI-5 scores than the other students.
高等教育学生的心理健康一直备受关注，而由新冠疫情引发的大流行局势加剧了这一担忧。为控制和减少疾病传播而采取的社会措施，除其他方面外，导致了高等教育学生学术生活习惯的重新调整，这自然改变了他们的情绪平衡、心理健康和药物滥用情况。这项横断面、描述性和相关性研究评估了高等教育学生的个人特征对其在葡萄牙首次强制隔离之前和期间（自我报告的）成瘾物质（酒精、烟草、毒品和药品）使用的影响，以及其与心理健康的关系。2020年4月15日至5月20日期间，对葡萄牙一个地区（阿连特茹北部地区）高等教育机构不同学习阶段的学生进行了一项在线问卷调查，问卷包括简化版心理健康量表（MHI - 5）以及关于个人特征和隔离前及隔离期间成瘾物质使用情况（由作者编制）的问题。便利样本包括329名年龄在18至24岁之间、大多为女性的医护专业学生。在我们的研究结果中，我们发现烟草、酒精和毒品的使用在统计学上显著减少；然而，年龄较大的学生烟草使用有所增加，学业成绩较高的学生以及在隔离前表现出更积极社交行为的学生中，抗焦虑药物的使用有所增加。在隔离期间服用抗焦虑药物的学生MHI - 5得分较高，而在隔离期间使用成瘾物质最多的学生MHI - 5得分低于其他学生。
