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अमूर्त

A Cluster Analysis of the Co-occurrence of Alcohol Consumption and Depressive Symptoms

Hui Liew

This study will use cluster analysis to empirically derive the patterns of alcohol consumption and depression symptoms among these respondents by forming segments of respondents with similar alcohol use, depression symptoms, and socio-demographic characteristics among veterans and non-veterans. The empirical work of this study is based on the 2011-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Because the choice of clustering variables includes a combination of nominal, ordinal, and interval-ratio scaled measures, a two-step clustering within SPSS was employed to segment individuals based on drinking frequency (treated as a continuous variable), age (treated as continuous variable), depression symptoms (likert scores), sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, and veteran status (dichotomies). Findings suggest that alcohol use and depression co-occur more commonly than expected. Individuals with more frequent manifestation of depressive symptoms tend to consume more alcohol. To mitigate the negative consequences of alcohol use and depression, there remains a pressing need for there remains a pressing need for an integrated treatment of both alcohol use and depression that simultaneously treat these two disorders.