Association between depressive symptoms and lung function in the United States adults without pulmonary diseases: A cross-sectional study from NHANES

Background: Depression is a severe and common mental disorder. The association between depressive symptoms and lung function remains unclear. To determine whether depressive symptoms are associated with lung function in U.S. adults without pulmonary diseases. Methods: A cross-sectional study of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data from 2007 to 2012 were used to estimate the relationship between depressive symptoms and lung function. Depressive symptoms were determined by a participant's score on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Forced Expiratory Volume 1st Second (FEV1) Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) were determined by the spirometry. Weighted multivariate linear regression was used to analyze this relationship and subgroup analyses were performed. Results: Of 8027 participants, 576 (7.18 %) participants with depression. Depression group had significant lower FEV1 and FVC than non-depression group. After adjustment for all covariates, there was a significant negative association between depressive symptoms and FVC (8 -4.84, 95 % CI -9.10 to -0.57), especially in nonHispanic White people (8 -9.03, 95 % CI -14.38 to -3.69). There was no independent association between depressive symptoms and FEV1 in all participants, whereas the association was significant in non-Hispanic White people (8 -4.91, 95 % CI -9.50 to -0.32). Conclusions: High depressive symptoms were independently associated with decline of FVC among U.S. adults without pulmonary diseases, especially in non-Hispanic White people. In addition, although it was not independently associated with FEV1 in all participants, depressive symptom score was also negatively associated with FEV1 in non-Hispanic White people.

Automated summary

This study investigated the association between depressive symptoms and lung function in US adults and found a correlation, especially among non-Hispanic White individuals.