Factors associated with alcohol use among graduate students in Brazil

This study assessed the factors associated with the use of alcohol among Brazilian graduate students. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 5,112 graduate students across Brazil between May and July 2022, using an electronic form on the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) platform. The ordinal logistic regression model with cumulative logits was used for the analysis in the R software. There were higher odds of alcohol use among graduate students facing significant difficulties in accessing the internet (OR = 2.25; CI = 1.51-3.38; p = 0.001), those spending more than three hours daily on social media (OR = 1.39; CI = 1.15-1.66; p = 0.005), using various medications (OR = 1.28; CI = 1.07-1.53; p = 0.008) including those for COVID-19 protection (OR = 1.37; CI = 1.00-1.88; p = 0.05) and psychotropic drugs without prescription (OR = 1.91; CI = 1.26-2.89; p = 0.0023), as well as tobacco (OR = 2.93; CI = 2.28-3.77; p < 0,001), cocaine (OR = 4.29; CI = 2.46-7.48; p < 0.001), and cannabis (OR = 2.19; CI = 1.78-2.71; p < 0,001). Being female (OR = 0.66; CI = 0.55-0.79; p < 0.001) and attending online classes equivalent to in-person ones (OR = 0.66; CI = 0.54-0.81; p < 0.001) were protective factors.