Abstract:

From the Department of Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy and Botany of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) (Spain), the Service-Learning Project (SLP) entitled "Education on the rational use of medicines and the risks of self-medication and drugs of abuse in the youth population" has been developed last academic year (2021-2022). The objective of this SLP project is to detect and answer to problems related to the use of medicines and drugs of abuse in high school students in Coslada (Madrid). Likewise, this project focuses on the design of health promotion and awareness strategies based on the importance of a rational use of medicines that allow a transfer of knowledge between students of pharmacy degree and high school. Of the three theoretical-practical workshops developed, this paper presents the results of workshop 1: “General aspects of drugs: Is a drug the same as a medicine? What research is necessary for their development and commercialization? Rational use and risks associated with the incorrect use of drugs”. This workshop covers goal 3.4. of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and to promote mental health and well-being.

The project has been carried out in four high school [140 students (73.1% women, 26.9% men) between 14 to 16 years old from six classrooms] in collaboration with the City Council of Coslada and the SLP work team including nine professors, four PhD students and one person from the Administration and Services Staff of the previously cited Department, and 44 students of the Pharmacy Degree and the Double Degree in Pharmacy and Human Nutrition. This activity has been integrated in the teaching of the compulsory subjects of General Pharmacology (3rd year), Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy (4th year), and Toxicology (5th year) of the aforementioned Degrees. The project has been developed in a mixed way, through the design and application of an online questionnaire to collect the previous knowledge of high school students and the realization of six theoretical-practical workshops (one per class) to improve their knowledge.

The workshops were carried out by UCM students and supervised by their teachers. The workshops dealt with aspects such as therapeutic compliance, rational use of drugs and early identification of adverse drug effects. At the end of the project, another survey was addressed to high school students to assess their opinion on the extent to which the workshop had contributed to improving their knowledge about medicines. The results showed that 90% of the students considered the knowledge acquired to be useful in improving their health. The development of the workshop was rated as excellent or very good by 100% of the students. In conclusion, and in view of the development of the workshops and the survey data collected, the project made it possible to identify a variety of medication-related problems among young people, highlighting the relevance of this type of intervention. Therefore, we believe that the SLP projects carried out between Universities and Public Service Entities are fundamental tools for the educational growth of the youth population in terms of knowledge of medications and their rational use.

Keywords:

Pharmacology, High school students, Rational use of medicines, Service-learning project.