Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 May 1;189(9):1044-51.
doi: 10.1164/rccm.201307-1349OC.

Depression and risk of incident asthma in adults. The CARDIA study

Wendy M Brunner  1 , Pamela J Schreiner, Akshay Sood, David R Jacobs Jr
Affiliations

Depression and risk of incident asthma in adults. The CARDIA study

Wendy M Brunner et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. .

Abstract

Rationale: Asthma is associated with depression, but the temporality of the association has not been established.

Objectives: To examine the association between prevalent elevated depressive symptoms and incident asthma, and between prevalent asthma and incident elevated depressive symptoms in a cohort of young and middle-aged adults.

Methods: We examined the longitudinal association between asthma and depressive symptoms bidirectionally in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) cohort. First, 3,614 participants, free of asthma, were classified by elevated depressive symptoms at the CARDIA Year-5 exam (n = 856 elevated vs. 2,758 not elevated; ages 23-35 yr) and followed for 20 years to incident asthma. Then, 3,016 participants, free of elevated depressive symptoms, were classified by self-reported current asthma status (n = 188 prevalent vs. 2,828 not prevalent) at the CARDIA Year-5 exam and followed for 20 years until onset of elevated depressive symptoms.

Measurements and main results: The relative hazard of incident asthma among those with elevated depressive symptoms was 1.26 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.02-1.56) after adjustment for covariates. When depressive status was modeled as the total number of reports of elevated depressive symptoms before the onset of asthma, the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.15 (95% CI = 1.02-1.29). The hazard of incident elevated depressive symptoms for those with asthma was no different than the hazard in those without asthma (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.92; 95% CI = 0.70-1.20).

Conclusions: This longitudinal observational study points to depression as a marker of risk for incident adult-onset asthma. On the other hand, prevalent asthma is not associated with incident adult-onset depression.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

  • Can the blues make it harder to breathe?
    Carroll KN. Carroll KN. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2014 May 1;189(9):1013-4. doi: 10.1164/rccm.201402-0320ED. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2014. PMID: 24787060 No abstract available.

References

    1. Strine TW, Mokdad AH, Balluz LS, Gonzalez O, Crider R, Berry JT, Kroenke K. Depression and anxiety in the United States: findings from the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Psychiatr Serv. 2008;59:1383–1390. - PubMed
    1. Kessler RC, Berglund P, Demler O, Jin R, Koretz D, Merikangas KR, Rush AJ, Walters EE, Wang PS National Comorbidity Survey Replication. The epidemiology of major depressive disorder: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) JAMA. 2003;289:3095–3105. - PubMed
    1. American Lung AssociationTrends in asthma morbidity and mortality2012[accessed 2013 Oct 28]. Available from: http://www.lungusa.org/finding-cures/our-research/trend-reports/asthma-t...
    1. World Health OrganizationGlobal surveillance, prevention and control of chronic respiratory diseases: a comprehensive approach2007[accessed 2013 Oct 28]. Available from: http://www.who.int/gard/publications/GARD_Manual/en/index.html
    1. Sullivan PW, Ghushchyan VH, Slejko JF, Belozeroff V, Globe DR, Lin SL.The burden of adult asthma in the United States: evidence from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey J Allergy Clin Immunol 2011. 127:363–369.e1–3 - PubMed

Publication types