The study presented herein was carried out during the 2023-2024 academic year. It pertains to the third edition of the service-learning project (SLP) titled “Education on the rational use of drugs and the risks involved with self-medication and consumption of drugs of abuse in youth population”. A total of 43 students (32 women and 11 men) from the Degree in Pharmacy and the Joint Degree in Pharmacy and Nutrition (3rd, 4th and 5th year) participated in this project. The target population consisted of 180 students (aged 12-19) from four high schools in Madrid, comprising males (n=101, 56.11%), females (n=76, 42.26 %) and people who preferred not to answer this question regarding their gender (n=3, 1.67 %). Among these students, 80% (n=720) were in compulsory secondary education (CSE), while 20% were in basic vocational training (BVT).

The main objective of this study was to assess the extent of adolescents' education about the rational use of medicines (RUM) prior to the workshop scheduled in our SLP, considering differences according to their gender and educational stage (CSE vs. BVT). To this end, a questionnaire was developed using Google Forms by students from General Pharmacology (3rd year), Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy (4th year), and Toxicology (5th year) of the Degree in Pharmacy and the Joint Degree in Pharmacy and Human Nutrition. Following the survey, a statistical analysis of the high school students' responses was carried out; first a descriptive analysis, using frequency tables, and then a comparative analysis, using Pearson's Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test, and stratifying where necessary.

The responses to the questionnaire showed that the adolescents have insufficient knowledge about medicine, with an average of 52.2% incorrect answers. Particularly, 44.4% of adolescents did not know about the information available in the medication leaflets. Similarly, their knowledge about the rational use of various medicines was either inaccurate or lacking in 47.2% of the adolescents surveyed (regarding antibiotics) and 52.8% (regarding benzodiazepines). Moreover, about 42.2% of the adolescents were wrong or did not know what to do in the case of suffering an adverse drug reaction. Only 25.56% knew that the SIGRE point is to recycle the remains of medicines and its packaging. According to the educational stage, the level of knowledge of medicines was significantly higher (p<0.001) in students from CSE when compared with those from BVT, being this difference more pronounced in females students than in male ones.

In conclusion, our findings demonstrated a deficiency in RUM knowledge among high schools students, which represents a growing global problem. These results highlight the importance of implementing interventions that empower students to be informed about the use of medicines for preventing self-medication in the future, and thus, guarantying the improvement of public and environmental health.

Keywords: Rational use of medicines, self-medication, secondary school students, Service-Learning Project, questionnaire, health education, environmental respect.