Alcohol Consumption in China Before and During COVID-19: Preliminary Results From an Online Retrospective Survey

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Abstract

Background: Alcohol is an important aspect of Chinese culture, and alcohol use has been traditionally accepted in China. People with stress, anxiety, and depression may use more alcohol. More people reported symptoms of anxiety and depression during the outbreak of COVID-19. Thus, people may drink more alcohol during the outbreak of COVID-19 than before COVID-19.

Methods: An online retrospective survey was conducted on a total sample of 2,229 participants. Drinking behaviors before and during COVID-19, current risky drinking and hazardous drinking, and the association between high-risk drinking and mental health problems (depression, anxiety, and stress) were assessed via self-reported measures on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS−21).

Results: This study found that, compared with before COVID-19, alcohol consumption was slightly decreased during COVID-19 (from 3.5 drinks to 3.4 drinks, p = 0.035) in the overall sample. Most (78.7%) alcohol drinkers were males. Before and during COVID-19, males consumed more drinks per week (4.2 and 4.0 vs. 1.3 and 1.2 drinks), had a higher percentage of heavy drinking (8.1 and 7.7% vs. 4.4 and 2.7%), and more drinking days per week (2.1 and 2.1 vs. 1.0 and 0.9 days). Males also had more risky drinking (43.2 vs. 9.3%) and hazardous drinking (70.2 vs. 46.6%) than female counterparts. This study also found that high-risk drinking predicted anxiety in females.

Conclusions: This study suggests a slight reduction in alcohol consumption during COVID-19. However, hazardous drinking is common, especially among male alcohol drinkers. Males consumed more alcohol, had more risky and hazardous drinking than female counterparts both before and during COVID-19. Public health policy makers should pay more attention to developing effective, population-based strategies to prevent harmful alcohol consumption.

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Most cited references 41

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The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories

P.F. Lovibond, S.H. Lovibond (1995)

The psychometric properties of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) were evaluated in a normal sample of N = 717 who were also administered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The DASS was shown to possess satisfactory psychometric properties, and the factor structure was substantiated both by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. In comparison to the BDI and BAI, the DASS scales showed greater separation in factor loadings. The DASS Anxiety scale correlated 0.81 with the BAI, and the DASS Depression scale correlated 0.74 with the BDI. Factor analyses suggested that the BDI differs from the DASS Depression scale primarily in that the BDI includes items such as weight loss, insomnia, somatic preoccupation and irritability, which fail to discriminate between depression and other affective states. The factor structure of the combined BDI and BAI items was virtually identical to that reported by Beck for a sample of diagnosed depressed and anxious patients, supporting the view that these clinical states are more severe expressions of the same states that may be discerned in normals. Implications of the results for the conceptualisation of depression, anxiety and tension/stress are considered, and the utility of the DASS scales in discriminating between these constructs is discussed.

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The AUDIT alcohol consumption questions (AUDIT-C): an effective brief screening test for problem drinking. Ambulatory Care Quality Improvement Project (ACQUIP). Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.

K Bush, D R Kivlahan, M McDonell … (1998)

To evaluate the 3 alcohol consumption questions from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) as a brief screening test for heavy drinking and/or active alcohol abuse or dependence. Patients from 3 Veterans Affairs general medical clinics were mailed questionnaires. A random, weighted sample of Health History Questionnaire respondents, who had 5 or more drinks over the past year, were eligible for telephone interviews (N = 447). Heavy drinkers were oversampled 2:1. Patients were excluded if they could not be contacted by telephone, were too ill for interviews, or were female (n = 54). Areas under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCs) were used to compare mailed alcohol screening questionnaires (AUDIT-C and full AUDIT) with 3 comparison standards based on telephone interviews: (1) past year heavy drinking (>14 drinks/week or > or =5 drinks/ occasion); (2) active alcohol abuse or dependence according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Revised Third Edition, criteria; and (3) either. Of 393 eligible patients, 243 (62%) completed AUDIT-C and interviews. For detecting heavy drinking, AUDIT-C had a higher AUROC than the full AUDIT (0.891 vs 0.881; P = .03). Although the full AUDIT performed better than AUDIT-C for detecting active alcohol abuse or dependence (0.811 vs 0.786; P<.001), the 2 questionnaires performed similarly for detecting heavy drinking and/or active abuse or dependence (0.880 vs 0.881). Three questions about alcohol consumption (AUDIT-C) appear to be a practical, valid primary care screening test for heavy drinking and/or active alcohol abuse or dependence.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Yunfei Wang: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/1070260/overview

Maorong Hu: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/773116/overview

Jianhua Chen: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/839022/overview

Tao Luo: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/959683/overview

Yueheng Liu: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/1108578/overview

Jinsong Tang: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/502648/overview

Wei Chen: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/549959/overview

Qijian Deng: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/1006166/overview

Yanhui Liao: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/888325/overview

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Front Psychiatry

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Front Psychiatry

Journal ID (publisher-id): Front. Psychiatry

Title: Frontiers in Psychiatry

Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A.

ISSN (Electronic): 1664-0640

Publication date (Electronic): 25 November 2020

Publication date Collection: 2020

Publication date PMC-release: 25 November 2020

Volume: 11

Electronic Location Identifier: 597826

Affiliations

[1] ¹Department of Psychiatry, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University , Changsha, China

[2] ²National Clinical Research Center of Mental Disorders , Changsha, China

[3] ³Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University , Nanchang, China

[4] ⁴Department of Psychiatry, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University , Nanchang, China

[5] ⁵The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University , Qiannan, China

[6] ⁶Shanghai Clinical Research Center for Mental Health, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine , Shanghai, China

[7] ⁷Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care, King's College London , London, United Kingdom

[8] ⁸Department of Social Medicine and Health Management, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University , Changsha, China

[9] ⁹Jiangxi Mental Hospital , Nanchang, China

[10] ¹⁰Department of Psychiatry, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University , Hangzhou, China

[11] ¹¹Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology of Zhejiang Province , Hangzhou, China

[12] ¹²Addictions Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London , London, United Kingdom

Author notes

Edited by: Giovanni Martinotti, University of Studies G. d'Annunzio Chieti and Pescara, Italy

Reviewed by: Maria Chiara Alessi, University of Studies G. d'Annunzio Chieti and Pescara, Italy; Marianna Mazza, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy

*Correspondence: Qijian Deng dengqijian@ 123456csu.edu.cn

Yanhui Liao liaoyanhui@ 123456zju.edu.cn

This article was submitted to Addictive Disorders, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry

Article

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.597826

PMC ID: 7723925

PubMed ID: 33324263

SO-VID: 4446c946-8c0f-43af-8627-bcbed0633487

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

History

Date received : 22 August 2020

Date accepted : 28 September 2020

Page count

Figures: 0, Tables: 6, Equations: 0, References: 41, Pages: 7, Words: 5933

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Alcohol Consumption in China Before and During COVID-19: Preliminary Results From an Online Retrospective Survey

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Novel Coronavirus Disease COVID-19

Most cited references 41

The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories

Development of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): WHO Collaborative Project on Early Detection of Persons with Harmful Alcohol Consumption-II

The AUDIT alcohol consumption questions (AUDIT-C): an effective brief screening test for problem drinking. Ambulatory Care Quality Improvement Project (ACQUIP). Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.

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Cited by 20

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