Systematic review of psychoactive substance use among Latin American women and its relationship to the promotion of active and healthy lifestyles
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v76.118443Keywords:
Healthy lifestyles , physical activity, psychoactive substances, public healthAbstract
Introduction: the consumption of psychoactive substances among latin american women constituted a relevant public health problem, with physical, psychological, and social implications, closely linked to the lifestyles adopted in different contexts.
Objective: to systematically analyze the available scientific evidence on the consumption of psychoactive substances among latin american women and its relationship with the promotion of active and healthy lifestyles.
Methodology: a systematic review with a qualitative-documentary approach was conducted, following prisma guidelines. a search was carried out in scientific databases between 2015 and 2025, applying previously defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The final sample consisted of 20 scientific studies, whose data were organized through a data extraction matrix and analyzed using descriptive and analytical synthesis.
Results: the findings showed that alcohol was the most studied and consumed substance, followed by tobacco and illicit drugs. a consistent inverse relationship was identified between the practice of physical activity and substance consumption, while sedentary behavior and unhealthy lifestyles were associated with higher consumption across different stages of the female life cycle.
Discussion: the results were consistent with previous literature by confirming the protective role of active lifestyles and the influence of social and contextual factors, although methodological limitations and geographic concentration of evidence were observed.
Conclusions: the review confirmed that the promotion of active and healthy lifestyles represented a key strategy for the prevention and management of psychoactive substance consumption among latin american women.
References
Abrantes, A., Browne, J., Stein, M., Anderson, B., Iacoi, S., Barter, S., Shah, Z., Read, J., & Battle, C. (2024). A lifestyle physical activity intervention for women in alcohol treatment: A pilot randomized controlled trial. Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment, 163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.josat.2024.209406
Arboleda, V., Vargas, A., & Gutiérrez, L. (2024). Actividad física y su relación con el consumo de alcohol, tabaco, y con variables asociadas a la salud mental en estudiantes universitarios: Un estudio transversal. MHSalud, 21(2), 82-101. http://dx.doi.org/10.15359/mhs.21-2.19251.
Bisquerra, R. (2009). Metodología de la investigación educativa (2ª ed.). Editorial La Muralla
Días, R., Lopes, C., Rodrígues, T., Vergetti, K., & Leite, W. (2025). Urban physical disorder and alcohol consumption among adolescents in Brazilian capitals: a cross-sectional study. Cadernos de Saude Publica, 41(3). https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311XEN032724
Gómez, D., Fantin, R., Valverde, C., Gamboa, T., Arias, S., & Carrillo, J. (2023). Association between tobac-co and alcohol consumption in women aged 15 to 49 in Costa Rica, according to the results of the Survey of Women, Children and Adolescents, 2018. Población Y Salud En Mesoamérica, 20(2). https://doi.org/10.15517/psm.v20i2.52274
Hernández, R., Fernández, C., & Baptista, P. (2014). Metodología de la investigación (6ª ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Lerma, P., Antolínez, M., Tamayo, G., Castro, D., Alvarado, O., Mantilla, S., & Jaimes, C. (2021). Behaviors related to chronic non-communicable diseases development in university students. Revista Médica Risaralda, 27(2). https://doi.org/10.22517/25395203.24673
Limberger, J., & Andretta, I. (2017). Development of Social Skills in Female Crack Users: Multiple Case Study. Trends in Psychology, 25(4), 1725-1739. https://pepsic.bvsalud.org/pdf/tp/v25n4/en_v25n4a11.pdf
Limberger, J., Da Silva, R., Schneider, J., & Andretta, I. (2016). Women users of crack: systematic review of Brazilian literatura. Jornal Brasileiro de Psiquiatria, 65(1). https://doi.org/10.1590/0047-2085000000107
Madruga, C., de Sousa, K., Canfield, M., Seabra, D., da Silva, C., Miguel, A., Nogueira, L., Ferreira, N., De Godoy, G., Cordeiro, Q., & Ramos, R. (2025). Women who use drugs in open drug scenes: a brief report from Brazil. Journal of Substance Use, 2(5), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/14659891.2025.2543882
Martinelli, J., Germano, C., de Avó, L., Fontanella, B., & Melo, D. (2019) Motivation for alcohol consump-tion or abstinence during pregnancy: A clinical-qualitative study in Brazil. PLoS ONE, 14(10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223351
Massaro, L., Abdalla, R., Laranjeira, R., Caetano, R., Pinsky, I., & Madruga, C. (2018). Alcohol misuse among women in Brazil: recent trends and associations with unprotected sex, early pregnancy, and abortion. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry, 41(02). http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2017-0024
Montero, P., Lopez, A., Cordoba, J., & Ramirez, E. (2025). Adolescent substance use in Costa Rica: find-ings from a national survey among secondary school students. Frontiers in Public Health, 13(1655355). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1655355
Possa, G., Gonçalves, M., Zerbetto, S., Silva, S., Moura, A., & Silva, F. (2021). Risk classification of alcohol consumption in pregnant women in the last 12 months and during pregnancy. SMAD, 17(4), 44-53. https://dx.doi.org/10.11606/issn.1806-6976.smad.2021.171923
Reséndiz, E., Bustos, M., Mujica, R, Soto, I., Cañas, V., Fleiz, C., Gutiérrez, M., Buenabad, N., Medina, M., & Villatoro, J. (2018). National trends in alcohol consumption in Mexico: results of the National Survey on Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Consumption 2016-2017. Salud Mental, 41(1), 7-15. https://doi.org/10.17711/sm.0185-3325.2018.003.
Tractenberg, S., Schneider, J., Mattos, B., Bicca, C., Kluwe, B., De Castro, T., Habigzang, L., & Grassi, R. (2022). The Perceptions of Women About Their High Experience of Using Crack Cocaine. Fron-tiers in Psychiatry, 13(898570). https://repositorio.pucrs.br/dspace/bitstream/10923/25209/2/The_Perceptions_of_Women_About_Their_High_Experience_of_Using_Crack_Cocaine.pdf
Trichia, E., Díaz, J., Aguilar, D., Ramírez, R., Garcilazo, A., González, C., Bragg, F., Friedrichs, L., Herring-ton, W., Holland, L., Torres, J., Wade, R., Collins, R., Peto, R., Berumen, J., Tapia, R., Kuri, P., & Em-berson, J. (2024). Alcohol and mortality in Mexico: prospective study of 150 000 adults. The Lancet Public Health, 9(11). https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(24)00228-7
Vernaglia, T., Senna, R., & Santos, M. (2015). Usuários de crack em situação de rua – características de gênero. Ciencia & Saude Colectiva, 20(6). https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232015206.11562014
Vernaglia, T., Leite, T., Faller, S., Pechansky, F., Kessler, F., Cruz, M., & Group, B. (2017). The female crack users: Higher rates of social vulnerability in Brazil. Health Care for Women International, 38(11), 1170–1187. https://doi.org/10.1080/07399332.2017.136700
Vilchez, A., Bernal, E., Morales, W., Sairitupa, L., Morales, S., & Saintila, J. (2023). Healthy Habits Factors and Stress Associated with Health-Related Quality of Life in a Peruvian Adult Population: A Cross-Sectional Study. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 16. https://doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S412962
Werneck, A., Oyeyemi, A., Szwarcwald, C., & Silva, D. (2019). Association between physical activity and alcohol consumption: sociodemographic and behavioral patterns in Brazilian adults. Journal of Public Health, 41(4), 781–787. https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdy202
Zottis, L., De Souza, M., Hartmann, J., Kurogi, T., Borges, L., Machado, A., Gresele, M., Da Rosa, E., Rouvel, M., Da Rocha, J., Bianchi, J., Campos, A., Gazzola, P., & Machado, R. (2024). Alcohol consumption during pregnancy by women from southern Brazil: a cross-sectional study. Sao Paulo Medical Journal, 142(5). https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-3180.2023.0186.R1.08022024
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 María Dolores Laínez Villao, Johanna Lilibeth Alcivar Ponce, Marianella Jazmín Pita Pallasco, Lorgio Yasell Mesa Palleija
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine the right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine.
- Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (eg, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Is allowed and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as to a subpoena more Early and more of published work (See The Effect of Open Access) (in English).
This journal provides immediate open access to its content (BOAI, http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#openaccess) on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The authors may download the papers from the journal website, or will be provided with the PDF version of the article via e-mail.
