Knowledge and practice on the use of alcohol and coffee among final-year undergraduate students of Hanoi Medical University in 2023

Abstract

Regular use of alcohol and coffee may be harmful to human health. Previous studies showed that students who consumed alcohol may consume coffee as well. We conducted a cross-sectional study with 212 final–year undergraduate students of Hanoi Medical University to describe their knowledge and practice in alcohol and coffee use The results show that over 70% of students had knowledge of alcohol and coffee. Approximately 87% and 41% of students thought that alcohol and coffee are both beneficial and harmful to health, respectively. Regarding the actual practice in the use of alcohol and coffee, 93.4% of students had ever drunk alcohol; while 84.9% of those had ever drunk coffee. The frequency of alcohol and coffee use is mostly less than 4 days per month. We found a high percentage of students had knowledge of alcohol and coffee, and they had been using alcohol and/or coffee, however, they occasionally used those drinks with a monthly frequency. It is necessary to strengthen communication activities about alcohol use and its health effects, especially recommending that alcohol use should be limited to less than 2 units/day in men, below 1 unit/day in women, and no more than 5 days/week [1].