Moderate-to-Severe Depression Adversely Affects Lung Function in Chinese College Students

Depression is known to be correlated with increased risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in middle-aged and older adults, but there is scarce evidence regarding its association with lung function among healthy adults. Thus, we aimed to assess this association by measuring the lung function and depression severity in Chinese college students. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 3,891 college students aged 16–24 years. Lung function was assessed by measuring the forced vital capacity (FVC) using a spirometer, and depression severity was evaluated using the 20-item Zung self-rating depression scale (SDS), with SDS scores of ≥40 and ≥45 indicating mild and moderate-to-severe depression, respectively. After adjusting for potential confounders, the geometric means of the FVC levels for the normal, mild depression, and moderate-to-severe depression groups were 3,446.1 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3,418.6–3,470.3), 3,415.2 (95% CI: 3,357.7–3,473.8), and 3,351.0 (95% CI: 3271.5–3432.3), respectively (P for trend: 0.031). These results indicated that depression severity was independently correlated with lung function decline in Chinese college students. Future prospective cohort or interventional studies are needed to confirm the negative association between depressive symptoms and lung function and investigate its causality.