Effects and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on medicine use by employees of a Brazilian public university: a cross-sectional study

Paula, Waléria de; Oliveira, Wanessa Cecília de; Meireles, Adriana Lúcia; Nascimento, Renata Cristina Rezende Macedo do; Silva, Glenda Nicioli da

doi:10.1590/1516-3180.2021.0367.R1.23072021

Waléria de Paula Address for correspondence: Waléria de Paula Programa de Pós-graduação stricto sensu em Ciências Farmacêuticas (CiPharma) da Escola de Farmácia da Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), s/no Ouro Preto (MG) — Brasil CEP 35400-000 Tel. (+55 31) 99477-2867 E-mail: waleria.paula@aluno.ufop.edu.br

MSc. Doctoral Student, Postgraduate Program on Pharmaceutical Sciences (CiPharma), School of Pharmacy, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), Ouro Preto (MG), Brazil.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9438-7343

Wanessa Cecília de Oliveira

Undergraduate Biology Student, Institute of Exact and Biological Sciences, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), Ouro Preto (MG), Brazil.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0768-2860

Adriana Lúcia Meireles

PhD. Professor, Department of Clinical and Social Nutrition, Postgraduate Program on Health and Nutrition, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), Ouro Preto (MG), Brazil.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1447-953X

Renata Cristina Rezende Macedo do Nascimento

PhD. Professor, Department of Pharmacy, Postgraduate Program on Pharmaceutical Sciences (CiPharma), School of Pharmacy, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), Ouro Preto (MG), Brazil.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7756-2157

Glenda Nicioli da Silva

PhD. Professor, Department of Clinical Analysis, Postgraduate Program on Pharmaceutical Sciences (CiPharma), School of Pharmacy, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), Ouro Preto (MG), Brazil.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9751-3379

Address for correspondence: Waléria de Paula Programa de Pós-graduação stricto sensu em Ciências Farmacêuticas (CiPharma) da Escola de Farmácia da Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), s/n^o Ouro Preto (MG) — Brasil CEP 35400-000 Tel. (+55 31) 99477-2867 E-mail: waleria.paula@aluno.ufop.edu.br

Conflict of interest: All authors declare that they did not have any conflict of interest

Authors’ contributions:Paula W: conceptualization (equal), data curation (equal), formal analysis (equal), investigation (equal), methodology (equal), project administration (equal), software (equal), supervision (equal), validation (equal), visualization (equal), writing-original draft (equal) and writing-review and editing (equal); Oliveira WC: formal analysis (equal), investigation (equal), methodology (equal) and writing-original draft (equal); Meireles AL: conceptualization (equal), investigation (equal), methodology (equal), project administration (equal), supervision (equal), validation (equal) and writing-review and editing (equal); and Nascimento RCRM and Silva GN: formal analysis (equal), supervision (equal), critical review and writing-review and editing (equal). All authors approved the final version and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work

Variables	n	%
Sociodemographic characteristics
Age
< 45 years	246	66.1
≥ 45 years	126	33.9
Occupation
University professor	212	57.0
Technicians	169	43.0
“Gratified” functions
No	322	86.6
Yes	50	13.4
Sex
Female	210	56.4
Male	162	43.6
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual	338	90.9
Homosexual, bisexual, and asexual	34	9.1
Housing situation
Living alone	57	15.3
With family/relatives	284	76.4
In student housing or with friends	31	8.3
Skin color
White	221	59.4
Others (East Asian, brown or black)	151	40.6
Marital status
Single/divorced/widowed	149	40.0
Married or common-law marriage	223	60.0
Religious belief
No	108	29.0
Yes	264	71.0
Family income
Up to six minimum monthly wages in Brazil	69	18.6
Greater than or equal to six minimum monthly wages in Brazil	303	81.4
Income decrease due to pandemic
No	226	60.7
Yes	142	38.2
Yes, more than 50%	4	1.1
Use of medicines
Were medicines used?
No	174	46.8
Yes, 1-4	188	50.5
Yes, 5 or more	10	2.7
Cardiovascular medicines
No	328	88.2
Yes	44	11.8
Nervous system medicines
No	309	83.1
Yes	63	16.9
Mental health
Symptoms of anxiety
No	307	82.5
Yes	65	17.5
Symptoms of depression
No	287	77.2
Yes	85	22.8
Symptoms of stress
No	288	77.4
Yes	84	22.6
Suicidal ideation
No	314	84.4
Yes	58	15.6
Suicide attempt
No	365	98.1
Yes	7	1.9
Lifestyle and health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic
Social distancing
No	22	5.9
Yes	350	94.1
After the start of the pandemic, your workload was:
Still the same	140	37.6
Increased	79	21.3
Decreased	153	41.1
Alcohol consumption
No	123	33.1
Yes	249	66.9
After the start of the pandemic, your alcohol consumption was:
Still the same	160	64.3
Increased	34	13.6
Decreased	55	22.1
Smoking
No, I never smoked	305	82.0
I quit smoking	39	10.5
I currently smoke	28	7.5
Illicit drug use
No	356	95.7
Yes	16	4.3
Physical activity
No	103	27.7
Yes	269	72.3
Body mass index
No excess body weight	202	54.3
Excess body weight	170	45.7
Self-rated health
Good SRH	308	82.8
Poor SRH	64	17.2

Variables	Use of medicines
Variables	University professor (%)	P	Technicians (%)	P
Sociodemographic characteristics
Age
< 45 years	46.6	< 0.001	42.6	0.009
≥ 45 years	71.9	< 0.001	65.9	0.009
“Gratified” functions
No	56.3	0.911	46.4	0.083
Yes	55.2	0.911	66.7	0.083
Sex
Female	61.3	0.280	62.6	< 0.001
Male	50.0	0.280	30.9	< 0.001
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual	53.6	0.055*	49.3	0.846
Homosexual, bisexual and asexual	84.2	0.055*	46.7	0.846
Housing situation
Living alone	48.3	0.611*	32.1	0.123
With family/relatives	57.1		51.7
In student housing or with friends	64.3		58.8
Skin color
White	54.8	0.503	53.3	0.308
Others (East Asian, brown or black)	59.7	0.503	45.2	0.308
Marital status
Single/divorced/widowed	50.7	0.253	47.5	0.693
Married or common-law marriage	59.0	0.253	50.6	0.693
Religious belief
No	52.7	0.435	38.2	0.155
Yes	58.3	0.435	52.0	0.155
Family income
Up to six minimum monthly wages in Brazil	60.0	0.619*	45.3	0.438
Greater than or equal to six minimum monthly wages in Brazil	56.2	0.619*	51.6	0.438
Income decrease due to pandemic
No	56.6	0.361*	43.3	0.091*
Yes	57.3		55.2
Yes, more than 50%	0.0		100.0
Mental health
Symptoms of anxiety
No	54.	0.103	44.5	0.020
Yes	67.6	0.103	67.7	0.020
Symptoms of depression
No	54.7	0.340	47.0	0.389
Yes	62.8	0.340	54.8	0.389
Symptoms of stress
No	56.5	0.905	45.0	0.073
Yes	55.6	0.905	61.5	0.073
Suicidal ideation
No	53.4	0.049	50.7	0.303
Yes	71.4	0.049	39.1	0.303
Suicide attempt’
No	55.3	0.055*	49.0	0.742*
Yes	100.0	0.055*	50.0	0.742*
Lifestyle and health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic
Social distancing
No	60.0	0.540*	58.3	0.357*
Yes	56.2	0.540*	48.3	0.357*
After the start of the pandemic, your workload was:
Still the same	54.0	0.885	39.4	0.091
Increased	58.1		52.1
Decreased	57.4		60.0
Alcohol consumption
No	59.1	0.587	59.6	0.046
Yes	55.1	0.587	43.1	0.046
After the start of the pandemic, your alcohol consumption was:
Still the same	54.8	0.307*	46.3	0.661
Increased	70.6		35.3
Decreased	48.6		38.9
Smoking
No, I never smoked	56.3	0.684*	48.8	0.925
I quit smoking	61.5		53.8
I currently smoke	46.1		46.7
Illicit drug use
No	56.2	0.540	49.7	0.359*
Yes	60.0	0.540	33.3	0.359*
Physical activity
No	41.8	0.012	72.9	< 0.001
Yes	61.4	0.012	38.7	< 0.001
Body mass index
No excess body weight	51.7	0.128	36.9	0.001
Excess body weight	62.1	0.128	62.7	0.001
Self-rated health
Good SRH	53.4	0.060	40.9	< 0.001
Poor SRH	70.3	0.060	88.9	< 0.001

Variables	Use of medicines
	University professor		Technicians
	PR (95% CI)	P	PR (95% CI)	P
Suicide attempt
No	1	0.005	–	–
Yes	1.81 (1.20-2.74)	0.005	–	–
After the start of the pandemic, your workload was:
Still the same	–	–	1
Increased	–		1.19 (0.84 - 1.68)	0.316
Decreased	–		1.41 (1.00 - 1.99)	0.047
Physical activity
No	1	0.009	1	< 0.001
Yes	1.53 (1.11-2.11)	0.009	0.60 (0.46 - 0.78)	< 0.001
Body mass index
No excess body weight	–	–	1	0.035
Excess body weight	–	–	1.39 (1.02-1.88)	0.035
Self-rated health
Good SRH	1	0.040	1	0.003
Poor SRH	1.29 (1.01-1.66)	0.040	1.48 (1.14-1.92)	0.003

[1] Address for correspondence: Waléria de Paula Programa de Pós-graduação stricto sensu em Ciências Farmacêuticas (CiPharma) da Escola de Farmácia da Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), s/n^o Ouro Preto (MG) — Brasil CEP 35400-000 Tel. (+55 31) 99477-2867 E-mail: waleria.paula@aluno.ufop.edu.br

Brasil

Brasil

Effects and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on medicine use by employees of a Brazilian public university: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

OBJECTIVE:

DESIGN AND SETTING:

METHODS:

RESULTS:

CONCLUSION: