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
Observational Study
. 2025 Aug 12;25(1):786.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-025-07245-w.

Association between depression and asthma: insight from observational and genetic evidence

Tanao Ji  1 , Yue Lv  2 , Jianan Yang  3 , Xianping Diao  3 , Jun Gu  4
Affiliations
Observational Study

Association between depression and asthma: insight from observational and genetic evidence

Tanao Ji et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Depression and asthma share several pathophysiologic risk factors, and their precise connection remains unclear. Our research seeks to assess the relationship between depression and asthma.

Methods: The association between depression and asthma was assessed through a multivariable logistic regression analysis, with data sourced from The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007-2018 and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) 2004-2019. Subsequently, a linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC) analysis was conducted to evaluate the genetic correlation between depression and asthma. Moreover, a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was conducted by employing genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics by means of both univariable MR (UVMR) and multivariable MR (MVMR).

Results: This study included 31,434 participants from NHANES and 17,021 participants from ELSA for observational research. In the unadjusted model, participants with depression had a significantly increased risk of asthma in comparison to participants without depression, both in NHANES (OR = 2.002, 95%CI: 1.827-2.193, P < 0.001) and in ELSA (OR = 1.753, 95%CI: 1.581-1.943, P < 0.001). After adjusting potential confounders, the results remain significant. The LDSC result revealed a significant positive genetic correlation between depression and asthma (rg = 0.352, P < 0.001).The UVMR results further substantiated a genetically predicted causality of depression on asthma (OR = 1.291, 95%CI: 1.157-1.442, P < 0.001), while the reverse causality does not stand. Similar findings from MVMR were obtained for the causality investigation after adjusting smoking (OR = 1.326, 95%CI: 1.156-1.520, P < 0.001), drinking (OR = 1.375, 95%CI: 1.186-1.593, P < 0.001), and education (OR = 1.425, 95%CI: 1.253-1.621, P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Our findings indicate that depression may play a contributory role in the development of asthma, underscoring the potential benefit of implementing prevention strategies aimed at managing depression to mitigate asthma risk.

Keywords: Asthma; Causal relationship; Depression; Mendelian Randomization; Observational study.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The NHANES protocol has received approval from the NCHS Ethics Review Committee. The ELSA study was approved by the London Multicenter Research Ethics Committee (MREC/01/2/91). All participants provided informed consent. The GWAS data was publicly available and ethics approval and informed consent were not required. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Overview of study design. NHANES, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; ELSA, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing; PHQ-9, Patient Health Questionnaire-9; CES-D, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale; LDSC, linkage disequilibrium score regression; MR, Mendelian Randomization; SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism; IV, instrumental variable
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
A Subgroup analyses of the association between depression and asthma in NHANES. NHANES National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, OR odd ratio, CI confidence intervals. B Subgroup analyses of the association between depression and asthma in ELSA. ELSA English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, OR odd ratio, CI confidence intervals
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Genetically predicted causal effects between depression and asthma. IVW inverse variance weighted, cML-MA constrained maximum likelihood and model averaging, CAUSE causal analysis using summary effect estimates, OR odd ratio, CI confidence intervals
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Genetically predicted causal effects depression on the risk of asthma using multivariable Mendelian Randomization analysis. OR, odd ratio; CI, confidence intervals
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Momtazmanesh S, Moghaddam SS, Ghamari S-H, Rad EM, Rezaei N, Shobeiri P et al. Global burden of chronic respiratory diseases and risk factors, 1990-2019: an update from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. EClinicalMedicine. 2023;59:101936. - PMC - PubMed
    1. National Asthma Education and Prevention Program. Expert panel report 3 (EPR-3): guidelines for the diagnosis and management of Asthma-Summary report 2007. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2007;120(5 Suppl):S94–138. - PubMed
    1. Ellwood P, Asher MI, Billo NE, Bissell K, Chiang C-Y, Ellwood EM, et al. The global asthma network rationale and methods for phase i global surveillance: prevalence, severity, management and risk factors. Eur Respir J. 2017;49:1601605. - PubMed
    1. Global prevalence and burden of depressive. And anxiety disorders in 204 countries and territories in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet. 2021;398:1700–12. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Smith K. Mental health: a world of depression. Nature. 2014;515:181. - PubMed

Publication types