Table 1 Characteristics of the study sample and values for the 12-month prevalence of pharmacological neuroenhancement distributed for sociodemographic and study-related characteristics.

From: Potential risk groups and psychological, psychosocial, and health behavioral predictors of pharmacological neuroenhancement among university students in Germany

Variable

Value

χ2, p, V; categories with statistically significant differences between prevalence of ‘12-month PN users’

Total sample

12-month PN users

PN non-users

All, n (%)

3984 (100.0)

416 (10.4)

3384 (84.5)

 

Gender, n (%)

(a) Female

2842 (71.3)

263 (9.3)

2458 (86.5)

χ2 = 21.6, p < 0.001, V = 0.052;

a-b

(b) Male

1110 (27.9)

146 (13.2)

903 (81.4)

(c) Diverse

32 (0.8)

7 (21.9)

23 (71.9)

Age, range (mean ± SD)

16–73 (23.8 ± 4.3)

18–52 (23.6 ± 3.9)

16–73 (23.7 ± 4.3)

 

Semester, range (mean ± SD)

1–45 (7.2 ± 4.8)

1–24 (6.6 ± 4.5)

1–45 (7.2 ± 4.8)

 

Age#

(a) Younger or equal 23 years

2243 (56.4)

233 (10.4)

1929 (86.0)

χ2 = 12.1, p = 0.002, V = 0.055

(b) Older than 23 years

1737 (43.6)

182 (10.5)

1452 (83,6)

First year, n (%)

(a) Yes

650 (16.3)

79 (12.2)

554 (85.2)

χ2 = 9.1, p = 0.010, V = 0.049

(b) No

3228 (81.0)

320 (9.9)

2747 (85.1)

Field of study, n (%)

(a) STEM

720 (18.1)

65 (9.0)

628 (87.2)

χ2 = 22.6, p = 0.031, V = 0.053;

a-b; b-f; e–f

(b) Social sciences, media or sport

717 (18.0)

89 (12.4)

598 (83.4)

(c) Philosophy, humanities or cultural sciences

803 (20.2)

89 (11.1)

674 (83.9)

(d) Medicine

528 (13.3)

51 (9.7)

439 (83.1)

(e) Law or economics

512 (12.9)

63 (12.3)

432 (84.4)

(f) Aspiring teachers

614 (15.4)

50 (8.1)

537 (87.5)

Degree, n (%)

(a) Bachelor

2086 (52.4)

254 (12.2)

1734 (83.1)

χ2 = 39.3, p = 0.025, V = 0.061;

a-b; a-d; b-c; c-d

(b) Master

844 (21.2)

63 (7.5)

751 (89.0)

(c) State examination

876 (22.0)

91 (10.4)

738 (84.2)

(d) Doctorate

139 (3.5)

5 (3.6)

126 (90.6)

  1. ‘12-month PN users’: respondents who used pharmacological neuroenhancement within the last 12 months; ‘PN non-users’: respondents who did not use pharmacological neuroenhancement within the last 12 months; alphabetic characters ‘a-b’; ‘a-d’; ‘b-c’; ‘c-d’ represent significant differences (p < 0.05) in the prevalence of ‘12-month PN users’ between respective categories of that variable. Note that the category ‘more than 12 month ago’ for the prevalence of pharmacological neuroenhancement (n = 184) is not presented in this table; SD: standard deviation; #: age dichotomized at the median; STEM: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
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