Objective.

To describe the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and other substances and its relationship with predictors of mental health in health students from a public university.

Materials and methods.

Quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional. Three thousand twenty students from nine health departments were selected. Cluster sampling is proportional to the number of students per department. A questionnaire of four parts was used: one with sociodemographic variables and three tests.

Results.

AUDIT: Out of 1726 respondents, 80.4 % were in risk zone I where education on alcohol is suggested and 0.9 % were in zone IV, referral to a specialist; FAGESTRÖM: Of the respondents (n = 196), 88.3 % scored as slightly dependent smokers and 8.2 % had a risk of dependence. DUSI: About the use of controlled substances, marijuana has the highest consumption (n = 554); 72.3 % used it experimentally and 8.5 % did it compulsively.

Conclusion.

The data revealed high figures of harmful use; therefore, it is necessary to propose timely intervention strategies.

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