Allergy Asthma Respir Dis.  2015 May;3(3):173-179. 10.4168/aard.2015.3.3.173.

Association between asthma and depression in Korean adults

• Kim YJ
• Kim JE
• Lee JS

• KMID: 2168486
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4168/aard.2015.3.3.173

Abstract

PURPOSE
Asthma is one of the most common allergic diseases in which depression is an important comorbidity. However, little is known about the prevalence of depression in Korean adult asthmatics. This study was performed to evaluate the association between asthma and depression and to investigate the clinical characteristics of Korean adult asthmatics with depression.
METHODS
Data were acquired from 18,066 men and women, aged older than 19 years who participated in the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, which was conducted from 2010 to 2012. The presence of asthma was based on self-reported physician diagnosis of asthma in the Health Interview Surveys.
RESULTS
The prevalence of asthma was 3.2%, and that of depression was 4.2%. In univariate analysis, adults with asthma were old age, marital status, unemployment, low education, low monthly family income, low number of household members, obesity (P<0.05) were significantly associated with asthma, but sex, residence area, and smoking status were not associated with asthma. The prevalence of hypertension and depression were higher in asthmatics (P<0.05), while diabetes mellitus was not associated with asthma. After adjustment for age, marital status, number of household members, monthly family income, body mass index, hypertension, unemployment, low educated status, and depression were associated with the higher prevalence of asthma (P<0.01). Depression was associated with female sex, unemployment, while it was not associated with lung function in asthmatics.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study show that depression may be an important risk factor for asthma in Korean adults. Further studies are needed to explore mechanisms responsible for the association between depression and asthma.

Keyword

Asthma; Depression; Respiratory function tests

MeSH Terms

Adult*
Asthma*
Body Mass Index
Comorbidity
Depression*
Diabetes Mellitus
Diagnosis
Education
Family Characteristics
Female
Humans
Hypertension
Korea
Lung
Male
Marital Status
Obesity
Prevalence
Respiratory Function Tests
Risk Factors
Smoke
Smoking
Unemployment
Smoke

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