Investigating the Associations Between Alcohol Consumption and Prevalence of Anxiety Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis

Abstract

The prevalence of a specific link between alcohol consumption and anxiety is the basis of this study. The primary aim is to identify how different types of alcohol link with different levels of anxiety disorder. This study is based on secondary data spanning two decades from 1990 to 1999 and 2010 to 2019. Before the primary analysis, the variables were categorised relative to their maximum and minimum values to identify countries with high anxiety prevalence. The MCA (multiple correspondence analysis) included four different types of alcohol and the prevalence of anxiety as variables. This methodology was utilised to determine the associations across 189 countries. The results reveal that anxiety rates are rising worldwide, with 17 countries identified to have prevalent high levels of anxiety. Most countries that exhibited a high prevalence of anxiety were based in the European region. The study emphasises a bi-directional association between anxiety and alcohol disorders, with diverse associations for various alcohol categories. Lower levels of consumption of alcoholic drinks with a high percentage of alcohol are associated with a greater incidence of anxiety, except beer, where consuming more beer is associated with a higher anxiety incidence. Similarly, a reciprocal relationship can be identified between these variables. The study emphasises that the consumption of alcohol can be detrimental to mental health and advises anxiety-prone individuals to exercise caution and restraint when imbibing.