Introduction:

Health risk behaviors often begin in the early stages of a person’s life, and represent a major catalyst for the development of other diseases. In this regard, different social groups experience several contexts, values, environments and living conditions, which lead to the establishment of certain behaviors that can be harmful to themselves.

Objective:

This study aimed to evaluate the risk behavior of medical students at a university in Alagoas.

Methods:

The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk behavior of medical students at a university in Alagoas. To this end, the Questionnaire on Risk Behavior in University Students (QREU) was applied. It consisted of twenty-four questions, which assess six categories of behavior, namely: use of tobacco; consumption of alcohol and other drugs; risky sexual behaviors; eating habits; physical inactivity; and dangerous driving. The responses were categorized, presented as relative and absolute frequencies; the data were processed and analyzed using the SPSS software.

Results:

Of the medical students enrolled during the data collection period, 134 (44.66%) responded to the questionnaires. There was a statistical difference between “daily smoking” (p=0.01), “tranquilizers without medical consent” (p=0.03) and “use of condoms” (p=0.01), in the univariate analysis of the years of course. Regarding the grouping of sociodemographic variables, there was a statistical difference in “condom use” (p=0.02).

Conclusion:

Therefore, the minor observations verified in relation to the risk behavior in the studied group, indicate a warning to raise the awareness about the use of preventive investigation methods and the execution of future works involving changes in the risk behavior of Brazilian youngsters.

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