This study examined the effect of smokers’ depression status change on their daily cigarette smoking amount (DCA). Findings suggest that emerging from a depressed status is related to a decreased DCA among males. For males who smoke more than 15 cigarettes per day, depressed status appears to increase DCA. Among males who began smoking before age 19, and males living with spouses, Yes→No depression status groups had a lower DCA than the No→No groups.
Smokers experiencing significant depression are more likely to begin smoking, due to the antidepressant effect of nicotine. In addition, nicotine boosts bioavailability of serotonin, whose mechanism is similar to some antidepressants [16]. Thus, depression contributes to increased DCA. Moreover, depression encourages smokers, particularly those who smoke more than 15 cigarettes per a day, to persist in this behaviour despite the health risk. It is, therefore, necessary to help smokers seek alternative, healthier antidepressant resources, or to encourage smokers with depressive symptoms to consult mental problem professionals.
Much like smoking from an early age was associated with increased DCA, several studies reported the association between the age of smoking initiation and smoking cessation as well as strong nicotine dependence [17–19]. Indeed, a study focused on smokers who visited the Center for Cancer Prevention and Early Detection (in Korea’s National Cancer Center) reported that nicotine dependence was much higher among those who started smoking aged 19 or earlier (compared to those who started aged 25 or later) [20]. Of significance in our study is the fact that smokers who began before 19 years of age and changed from depressed to non-depressed status had a much lower DCA than general smokers with the same change pattern. This may provide evidentiary support for the implementation of smoking cessation programs by detecting depression symptoms and encourage to participating in antidepressant programs in parallel with smoking cessation programs for smokers with early initiation age.
This study demonstrated no statistically significant results among females. This is likely related to the low self-reporting rate among female smokers in Korea. This small number of female smokers in this study data might be underestimated by self-reported responses. The notion of an underestimation issue in this demographic is supported by the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) study. By comparing the number of females who self-reported as smokers with the number confirmed to be through urine cotinine examination, a significant discrepancy between the prevalence of self-reported and biochemically-verified female smokers [21]. To identify the effect depression status change on female smokers, further study is needed, using data obtained from other smoking detection methods, e.g. urine cotinine examination.
This study has several limitations. First, since the KoWePS largely represents low income households, study findings are somewhat limited when it comes to generalizing to the national population, and high income households in particular. Second, because of data limitations, the analysis could not include clinical laboratory results (such as those from urinary cotinine level exams) that show the degree of smoking intensity. Third, the use of self-reported responses means that measurement issues such as reporting bias and recall bias may have confounded the findings.
Despite the limitations, the present study has several strengths. First, we used data from a nationwide survey with randomly sampled longitudinal data and a 10-year follow up. As the KoWePS largely represents low income households, it can be generalized to South Korea’s low-income population. Second, previous studies have examined the association between depression and smoking cessation success. However, this study used a lagged GEE model to determine the ability of depression status change (which may occur through treatment) to lessen daily smoking cigarettes among smokers.
In conclusion, this study examined the effect depression status change on smokers’ DCA. We found that change from depressed to non-depressed and non-depressed to depressed status is associated with decreasing and increasing DCA, respectively. Among those who began smoking before age 19, the subgroup that changed from depressed to non-depressed status had a much lower DCA than general smokers with the same change pattern. These findings may support the incorporation of depressive symptom treatment into smoking cessation programs.