Introduction:

Health literacy is defined as the ability to obtain, read, understand and use health information to make informed decisions throughout life, an important social determinant of health equity.

Objective:

To identify the levels of literacy in the domains of sexuality and addictive behaviors (tobacco and alcohol) among students in higher education.

Methods:

We developed a quantitative, cross-sectional and descriptive study with a sample of 924 Polytechnic Higher Education students.

Results:

The students had a mean age of 22 years, 79.8% were female, 89.5% were single and 96.0% were of Portuguese nationality. Of the sample, 76.9% were undergraduate students and 58% were away from their usual residence. Regarding consumption, 74.7% had never smoked. Regarding alcohol consumption, 73.9% had consumed or consume alcohol. About the impact of computer/Internet use on health and well-being, 51.9% reported it sometimes, and 11.3% often. 92.7% stated that they use contraception.

Conclusion:

The results obtained allow a diagnosis of the training needs of students in the area of sexuality and addictive behaviors, as well as the preparation of a support manual to be made available in open access. It is expected to contribute to improving the levels of health literacy, disseminating materials that can be used to enable and empower students to make decisions and promote health-promoting behaviors.

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