Abstract
Objective: To demonstrate the epidemiological profile of drug use by students at the health school of a private university center. Methods: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, carried out with students of health courses at a private university center in the northeast region of Brazil. As an instrument for data collection, a questionnaire was developed with (16) sixteen questions about the demographic, social and cultural characteristics related to self-medication. Results: It was evidenced that the highest frequency of participants were from the Nursing course (n=46; 58.2%), attending between the 1st and 3rd period (n=36; 45.6%), between the age group from 20 to 29 years old (n=47; 55.7%), female (n=64; 81.0%), with family income 1 to 2 MW (n=30; 38.0%), of Race /Brown color (n=34; 43.0%). Most students live in Jaboatão dos Guararapes (n=38; 48.1%) and do not have health insurance (n=46; 58.2%). Conclusion: It is observed that self-medication can be understood as a multidimensional social construct. Thus, the importance of actions such as education and health for greater reflection and development of new approaches to the analyzed reality is highlighted.