Alcohol and energy drinks consumption in students of the University of Buenos Aires before and during the first year of COVID-19 lockdown

SONIA JAZMÍN MOLINA; ÁNGEL EMANUEL LIETTI; CANDELA SOFÍA CARREIRA CARO; PAUTASSI R.M; ANGELINA PILATTI; GUSTAVO EZEQUIEL BUJÁN; LAURA RUTH GUELMAN

Virtual Conference

Congreso; XXXVI Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias; 2021

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias

Alcohol consumption (AC) can induce several negative consequences and is highly prevalent in universitystudents (US). On the other hand, there are different factors that can promote an increase in AC, such as theintake of other beverages (e.g. energy drinks, ED) as well as social isolation (e.g. COVID-19 lockdown). Thus, theaim of this work was to evaluate the AC pattern and the potential impact of ED intake and lockdown in studentsfrom the University of Buenos Aires.A sample of 1776 US completed an online survey that assessed the amount and frequency of alcohol and EDintake before and during the first year of COVID-19 pandemic.Results showed that students´ AC was highly prevalent both before and during the lockdown. In addition, it wasobserved that men consumed more alcohol than women. When comparing both time periods, the amount andfrequency of AC decreased during lockdown. Moreover, few US consume ED, either alone or in combinationwith alcohol, and during lockdown its consumption decreased even more.In conclusion, this study suggests that AC is highly prevalent in US, which is worrying given the negativeconsequences associated with it. Furthermore, factors such as ED intake did not promote higher AC, whereaslockdown decreased the consumption of this substance. Together, data suggest that although a decrease insocial events seems to be an effective tool to avoid AC, people should be advised that solitary drinking mightincrease the risk of alcohol disorder