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. 2021 Jan;57(1):68-75.
doi: 10.4068/cmj.2021.57.1.68. Epub 2021 Jan 25.

Association between Alcohol Drinking Status and Depressive Symptoms in Korean Adults

Jung-Hwa Yang  1 , Chang Kyun Choi  2 , Hye-Yeon Kim  3 , Young-Ran Heo  1 , Min-Ho Shin  2
Affiliations

Association between Alcohol Drinking Status and Depressive Symptoms in Korean Adults

Jung-Hwa Yang et al. Chonnam Med J. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

We investigated the association between alcohol drinking status and depressive symptoms in a representative sample of South Korean adults using data from the 2017 Korea Community Health Survey (KCHS), which included 216,771 participants (99,845 men and 116,926 women). Depression was defined as a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score of ≥10. Multivariate logistic regression using sampling weights was used to assess the relationship between alcohol drinking status and depression after adjusting for potential confounders. Alcohol intake was nonlinearly associated with depression; the risk of depression was the lowest in men who were moderate drinkers and women who were light drinkers. In men, heavy drinkers (odds ratio [OR] 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.19-1.67), light drinkers (OR 1.13, 95% CI 0.94-1.36), infrequent drinkers (OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.00-1.73), and lifetime abstainers (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.09-1.75) were at a higher risk of depression than moderate drinkers. In women, moderate drinkers (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.02-1.40) and heavy drinkers (OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.33-1.84) were at a higher risk of depression than light drinkers; however, infrequent drinkers and lifetime abstainers were not at a high risk of depression. In both men and women, former drinkers were at a higher risk of depression (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.34-1.93 and OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.09-1.43, respectively). In conclusion, the association between alcohol drinking status and depression was nonlinear in both sexes. Further investigation of age- and sex-specific factors related to the association between alcohol use and depression is needed.

Keywords: Alcohol Drinking; Depression; Health Surveys; Patient Health Questionnaire 9.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT: None declared.

Figures

FIG. 1
FIG. 1. Age-stratified analysis for estimated prevalence of depressive symptoms according to sex. All models were adjusted for age, marital status, education, household income, residential area, body mass index, smoking status, hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, and self-rated health.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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