Environment/Climate Change
The long-term Particulate Matter2.5 Exposure and Prevalent Depression Symptoms in the Environmental Health Study for Western New York (EHS4WNY) Matthew Bonner* Matthew Bonner Tammy Milillo Meng Wang Lina Mu Laurene Tumiel Berhalter James Olson
Purpose: We investigated long-term, low-level exposure to ambient PM2.5 and the prevalence of depression symptom in a general population cohort exposed to industrial pollution.
Methods: EHS4WNY is a prospective cohort study started in 2018 when we began enrolling 13,306 individuals aged 18+years who resided in three communities in Erie County, NY. We ascertained information about demographics, residential history, smoking and secondhand smoke exposure, personal medical history, and self-reported symptoms of depression (CES-D-10), using mailed and internet-based self-administered questionnaires. Daily ambient PM2.5 predictions were interpolated to each residential baseline address, aggregated over 17 years from 2000 to 2016, and dichotomized the exposure variable at the 3rd quartile (10.27 ug/m3; IQR = 0.32). We calculated prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% CIs using Poisson regression, adjusting for age, pack-years of smoking, income, and biological sex.
Results: 2,225 participants scored greater than 10 on the CES-D-10, reflecting a prevalence of 23.5% (95% CI = 22.6-24.36%) for mild or significant depressive symptoms. Long-term average PM2.5 exposure greater than 10.27 ug/m3 was positively associated with prevalent depression symptoms (PRadjusted = 1.16; 95% CI = 1.03-1.30). The association was slightly stronger when the analysis was restricted to never smokers, although less precise (PRadjusted = 1.22; 95% CI = 1.04-1.44).
Conclusion: Overall, long-term exposure to relatively low levels of PM2.5 was associated with the prevalence depression symptoms. Given the use of prevalence, these results are prone to prevalence-incidence bias, among other threats to validity. Nonetheless, they are consistent with the extant literature, setting the stage to investigate such associations using incident symptoms of depression.