Medo da COVID-19 e Aumento do Consumo de Bebidas Alcoólicas por Alunos do Ensino Médio Durante a Pandemia

More than 25% of Brazilian teenagers are currently experimenting with alcohol and this early consumption is associated with violence, unprotected sex, use of other drugs, depression, anxiety, car accidents, family confl icts and chronic diseases. This scenario may have been aggravated by the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was undertaken with the aim of analyzing the association between fear of COVID-19 and alcohol consumption among students in a municipality in southern Brazil. For that, 170 students answered a controlled one composed of expressive instruments through the Redcap platform. Stata 15.1 was used for statistical analysis. The results indicate that fear of the pandemic may have been responsible for the 5-fold increase in alcohol consumption and that 20% of students had suicidal thoughts during the period of social distancing. The consumption of alcoholic beverages is related to more than 200 harms to cognitive, behavioral and physical health. A signifi cant increase among schoolchildren suggests the urgency of public policies aimed at identifying, monitoring and strengthening social support for the harm resulting from alcohol consumption in this age group.Keyword:Fear, coronaphobia, alcohol drinking, students, suicide