With the growing number of anxiety disorder cases among university students in different countries, it is important to evaluate, compare and demonstrate different ways to obtain information about the mental health status of these students. This paper evaluates the prevalence and compares anxiety disorders in a population of university students to provide information to aid the formulation of public health policies and develop actions to support students. The study was conducted using primary data (n = 427), composed of students from two universities in Latin America. The fuzzy TOPSIS method was used to analyze the collected data, with the research instruments Generalized Anxiety Disorder -GAD-7 and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory- STAI. The originality of this research lies in the fact that it is the first article in the literature to use the proposed methodology to analyze anxiety disorders in university students in Latin America countries. The data were adapted for cloud analysis, particularly the multicriteria method, which contributes to public health studies. Together with the instruments, the method generated insights that corroborate the World Health Organization (WHO) data. This study may assist public policymakers in providing greater support for citizens with anxiety disorders. It is hoped that the results of this study can assist managers in public health decision making by proposing public policies that mitigate anxiety disorders that affect thousands of university students worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]