Air Pollution and Symptoms of Depression in Elderly Adults

Beginning of article

BACKGROUND: Although the effect of air pollution on various diseases has been extensively investigated, few studies have examined its effect on depression.

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the effect of air pollution on symptoms of depression in an elderly population.

METHODS: We enrolled 537 participants in the study who regularly visited a community center for the elderly located in Seoul, Korea. The Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form (SGDS-K) was used to evaluate depressive symptomatology during a 3-year follow-up study. We associated ambient air pollutants with SGDS-K results using generalized estimating equations (GEE) We also conducted a factor analysis with items on the SGDS-K to determine which symptoms were associated with air pollution.

RESULTS: SGDS-K scores were positively associated with interquartile range (IQR) increases in the 3-day moving average concentration of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter [less than or equal to] 10 [micro]M.sub.10]) [17.0% increase in SGDS-K score, 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.9%, 30.5%], the 0-7 day moving average of nitrogen dioxide [[NO.sub.2]; 32.8% (95% CI: 12.6%, 56.6%)], and the 3-day moving average of ozone [[0.sub.3]; 43.7% (95% CI: 11.5%, 85.2%)]. For these three pollutants, factor analysis showed that air pollution was more strongly associated with emotional symptoms such as feeling happy and satisfied than with somatic or affective symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that increases in [PM.sub.10], [NO.sub.2], and [0.sub.3] may increase depressive symptoms among the elderly. Of the symptoms evaluated, ambient air pollution was most strongly associated with emotional symptoms.

KEY WORDS: air pollution, depressive symptoms, elderly, factor analysis, panel study. Environ Health Perspect 120:1023-1028 (2012). http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1104100 [Online 18 April 2012]

Depression is one of the common mental health problems experienced by the elderly and has been found to lead to increased mortality and suicide in this age group (Blazer et al. 2001; Waern et al. 2003). Known risk factors for depression among the elderly are alcohol and substance abuse, sleep disturbance, bereavement, medical conditions, family history, and being female (Cole and Dendukuri 2003; Mulsant and Ganguli 1999). Hypotension and a low lipid level also have been found to be associated with depressive symptoms among the elderly and women, respectively (Horsten et al. 1997; Kim et al, 2010).

Plausible biological mechanisms of depression include reactivity to exogenous stressors; alterations of neurohumoral, immune, and autonomic regulation; dysfunction of neurotransmitter systems; and oxidative stress (Grippo 2009; Ng et at 2008). Because depletion of dopamine in the central nervous system (CNS) is known to be an underlying pathophysiological mechanism of depression (Hasler 2010), air pollution could affect depressive moods by inducing dopaminergic neurotoxicity, possibly due to oxidative stress (Block et al. 2004). Research with cell cultures and experimental animals has provided evidence of neuropathological effects of exposure to particles (Block et al. 2004; Campbell et al. 2005; Veronesi et al. 2005). However, only a few studies have evaluated the association between air pollution and depressive symptoms in humans. In Canada, researchers reported short-term effects of air pollution on emergency department visits because of depression and suicide attempts (Szyszkowicz 2007a; Szyszkowicz et al. 2009b, 2010). Their time-series analyses focused on the diagnosis of depression resulting from severe pathophysiological alterations in the CNS, and their results suggest that air pollution may have aggravated symptoms of depression among a pool of patients in the community who were suffering from depression. However, Bullinger (1989) has proposed that short-term exposure to air pollution more likely affects daily mood rather than causes major depressive illnesses Although studies have found that major (Valvanne et al. 1996) or minor (Lyness et al. 2006) depression is common among the elderly, who may also be most susceptible to adverse health effects of air pollution (Pope 2000), no studies have examined changes in depressive symptoms associated with short-term exposure to air pollution among the elderly.

Our study was based on an a priori hypothesis that air pollution may affect depressive symptoms, because air pollution is known to induce oxidative stress, a potential cause of depression. Hence, we examined the effect of air pollution on symptoms of depression among the elderly in Seoul, Korea, from 2008 to 2010, by evaluating depressive symptom test scores, as well as individual symptoms that contributed to the overall score.

Materials and Methods

Population. This study evaluated data from 560 participants who regularly visited a community welfare center for the elderly located in Seongbuk-Gu. This region is one of 25 districts in Seoul, Korea, located in the northern midsection of the city where approximately 460,000 residents reside in an area approximately 25 [km.sup.2].

We performed the first follow-up of this 3-year study from August 2008 to December 2008, the second from April to October 2009, and the third from March to August 2010. We excluded persons diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer's disease (n = 23) because of concerns regarding compliance and reliability. During the 3-year follow-up period, 166 participants visited the welfare center only once, 184 visited twice, and 187 visited three times. Baseline questionnaires were administered by interviewers and were used to record demographic and behavioral characteristics, a self-reported history of physician-diagnosed chronic diseases, at least 1-year of medication use for the reported chronic diseases, and dietary intake of selected items, such as meat, fish, and vegetables. At each visit, participants underwent a physical examination and answered questions on the depression symptom questionnaire. Weight and height were measured, and body mass index (BMI) was calculated (kilograms per meter squared). Mean systolic blood pressure (SBP; millimeter of mercury) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP; millimeter of mercury) were calculated from two measurements taken at intervals of s 5 min. Fasting blood and urine samples were drawn between 0900 and 1200 hours on the same day. We obtained written informed consent from all participants, and the institutional review board of Seoul National University Hospital reviewed and approved the study protocol.

Measure of depressive symptoms. To evaluate depressive symptoms during the previous 1 week, trained staff conducted face-to-face interviews using the Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form (SGDS-K) (Bae and Cho 2004). The SGDS-K consists of 15 items (5 positive and 10 negative feelings for the previous week) each coded as either negative (1) or positive (0), with total scores ranging from 0 to 15. We inverted responses to questions about positive feelings so that higher summed scores would indicate greater depression severity. To assess the reliability of the SGDS-K responses, we conducted a test-retest comparison among 30 randomly selected participants who completed two study visits 1 week apart (the …