Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge level of university students and their health beliefs about drug use in the rational drug use education given to them in line with the health belief model.

Materials and Methods: This study is a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test post-test design, and the research sample consists of students (n=95) studying in the first and emergency aid department at a university in Istanbul. The data of the study were collected using the “Personal Information Form”, the ‘Rational Drug Use Scale’ and the ‘Health Belief Scale about Drug Use’. As a pre-test before the education, students were asked to fill out the forms and scales. Then, students were given a single-session, 50-minute “rational drug use” education. The education was carried out face-to-face with a power point presentation during a time period outside of the students’ class hours. 6 weeks after the education, the forms and scales were re-administered to students as a post-test.

Findings: The mean age of the students who participated in the research was 20.21, 81.1% of the students were first year students, 18.9% were second year students, 69.5% were female and 30.5% were male. 11.6% of the participants stated that their income was less than their expenses, 61.1% stated that their income was equal to their expenses and 27.3% stated that their income was more than their expenses. The mean pre-test score of the students who participated in the research on the “Rational Use of Drugs Scale” was 12.11± 2.51 (5-19), the mean post-test score was 14.04±2.62 (11-22), the mean pre-test score of the ‘Health Beliefs on Drug Use Scale’ was 140.57±18.88 (93-173), and the mean post-test score was 151.18± 20.21 (94-175). A statistically significant difference was found between the students’ ‘Rational drug use scale’ and ‘Health belief scale regarding drug use’ pre- and post-education mean scores (p<.001). The students’ ‘Rational drug use scale’ and ‘Health belief scale regarding drug use’ post-education mean scores were higher than pre-education. The effect sizes of the differences between the pre-education and post-education scores for both scales had a large effect. The post-education mean scores of male students on the Rational drug use scale were found to be higher than those of females (p<.05). The gender and family income levels of the participants did not affect the Rational drug use scale scores (p>0.05).

Conclusion: It was found that the education on rational drug use given to associate degree university students in line with the health belief model increased the students’ level of knowledge on rational drug use and their health beliefs regarding conscious and prescribed drug use.

Keywords: Drug use, education, health belief model, university student