Smoking and mental health: results from a community survey

Objective To assess the relationship of smoking with depression and anxiety symptoms and with risk factors for depression. Design and setting A community survey conducted in Canberra in 1997. Participants 2725 persons aged 18‐79 sampled from the electoral roll. Main outcome measures Smoking was inve...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical journal of Australia 1999-01, Vol.170 (2), p.74-77
Main Authors: Jorm, Anthony F, Rodgers, Bryan, Jacomb, Patricia A, Christensen, Helen, Henderson, Scott, Korten, Ailsa E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Anxiety - complications
Anxiety - epidemiology
Australia - epidemiology
Biological and medical sciences
Case-Control Studies
Depression - complications
Depression - epidemiology
Female
Health Surveys
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Mental Health
Middle Aged
Risk Factors
Sampling Studies
Smoking - epidemiology
Smoking - psychology
Socioeconomic Factors
Stress, Psychological - complications
Stress, Psychological - epidemiology
Surveys and Questionnaires
Tobacco, tobacco smoking
Toxicology
Tropical medicine
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objective To assess the relationship of smoking with depression and anxiety symptoms and with risk factors for depression. Design and setting A community survey conducted in Canberra in 1997. Participants 2725 persons aged 18‐79 sampled from the electoral roll. Main outcome measures Smoking was investigated in relation to psychiatric symptoms (anxiety, depression, alcohol misuse), sociodemographic characteristics (age, sex, education, occupational status), social stressors (divorce, unemployment, financial difficulties, negative life events, childhood adversity), personality (extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism), and social support (family and friends). Results Smokers had more depression and anxiety symptoms, more stressors and lower socioeconomic status compared with non‐smokers. The association between smoking and psychiatric symptoms persisted even when stressors, socioeconomic characteristics and other factors were statistically controlled. Conclusions Smoking is associated with poorer mental health. In helping patients to give up smoking, doctors need to be aware that some may have underlying mental health problems that require attention.
ISSN:0025-729X
1326-5377
DOI:10.5694/j.1326-5377.1999.tb126887.x