Cigarette smoking predicts development of depressive symptoms among U.S. Adolescents

Abstract

To examine whether adolescent cigarette smoking predicts the development of depressive symptoms, we used a longitudinal follow-up survey of 6,863 adolescents ages 12 to 18 in the U.S. who did not report notable depressive symptoms at baseline. This study used a self-report measure of six depressive symptoms experienced within the past twelve months at follow-up as the outcome of interest. Results indicated that 11.5% developed notable depressive symptoms at follow-up. There were marked gender differences with 15.3% of girls developing notable depressive symptoms compared to 8.1% of boys. Gender differences in depressive symptoms were consistent across all age groups and were apparent by the age of twelve. For both genders, smoking status was the most significant predictor of developing notable depressive symptoms. Several other risk factors including involvement in organized athletics, availability of social support, and personality characteristics were also found to be associated with development of depressive symptoms. Adolescent cigarette smoking may have marked health consequences in terms of depressive symptoms. The reduction of cigarette smoking among adolescents should be a focus of depression prevention interventions. In addition, the development of gender-specific components of prevention interventions may be warranted.

Prevalence and Correlates of Exergaming in Youth

“…Depression symptoms were measured in the validated 6-item Kandel Depressive Scale, 59,60 which assessed how often (never, rarely, sometimes, often, always) in the past 7 days participants (1) felt too tired to do things; (2) had trouble going to sleep or staying asleep; (3) felt unhappy, sad, or depressed; (4) felt hopeless about the future; (5) felt nervous or tense; and (6) worried too much about things. Responses were summed and then divided by the number of items responded to, to create a depression symptom score that ranged from 1 to 5 (mean [SD] = 2.22 [0.8]) with higher values indicating more frequent depression symptoms.…”

On the development of nicotine dependence in adolescence

“…Most prospective studies have not measured dependence, have not followed youths at closely enough spaced intervals to obtain adequate data on patterns of behavior and their predictors, have not assessed the timing and latency of the transition from experimental to dependent smoking, nor have they examined subgroup differences, in particular race/ethnic differences (Chassin et al, 1996;Choi et al, 1997;Fergusson et al, 1996;McNeill, 1991;Stanton, 1995;Stanton et al, 1991). Three recent exceptions include the 3-year follow-up by DiFranza et al (2000DiFranza et al ( ,2002 in two small Massachusetts cities of 7 th graders contacted every three months, the 6-year follow-up by O'Loughlin et al (Gervais et al, 2006;Karp et al, 2005Karp et al, ,2006O'Loughlin et al, 2004) in Canada with a similar design of a cohort of 7th graders contacted every three months, and the 4-year annual follow-up of 9 th graders in Northern Virginia by Audrain-McGovern et al (2004a,b, 2007.…”

Long-term Effects of Adolescent Smoking on Depression and Socioeconomic Status in Adulthood in an Urban African American Cohort

“…First, we have 25 years of follow-up time, which is longer than most of the studies that only followed up for 10 years after the baseline age in adolescence. 20,23,24,63 Second, we used propensity score and matched a group of smokers with nonsmokers that had similar childhood characteristics and background factors, including mothers' socioeconomic status and substance use behaviors, mothers' mental health, childhood personality, and school performance to help us examine the long-term effects of smoking. We have a more thorough list of background factors and a different statistical method to obtain the effects of adolescent smoking on adult depression.…”

“…19 Researchers found that most of the studies found positive associations between smoking and depression in adjusted or unadjusted analysis, 13,14,[20][21][22][23][24][25] while there was also some evidence for not finding cumulative frequency of early tobacco smoking related to later mental illness after adjusting for confounding factors or inconclusive results. 25,26 The evidence for whether cigarette smoking is a precursor of later depression as detected using data from longitudinal studies remains inconclusive.…”