Association of smoking with depression and anxiety in middle-aged adults: a large cross-sectional study of industrial manufacturing employees in Iran.

Alizadeh, Z., Roohafza, H., Feizi, A. etal. Association of smoking with depression and anxiety in middle-aged adults: a large cross-sectional study among industrial manufacturing employees in Iran. Int J Ment Health Addiction (2021) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-021-00684-y

Commentary

This study investigated the association between smoking and depression and anxiety in a large sample of regular and contract employees of a flour milling company in Isfahan, Iran.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 3063 employees in 2014 and multi-stage cluster sampling was employed along with stratified sampling based on management section. Data collection was done through several validated Iranian version self-administered questionnaires including international physical activity-short form, effort-reward imbalance, hospital anxiety and depression scales.

The results, presented in crude and adjusted models, showed that smokers had a higher risk of depression compared to never smokers. (Crude OR: 1.45; 95% CI: 1.01-2.07 and adjusted OR: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.04, 2.23)

Smoking was significantly associated with anxiety in both the crude and adjusted models. (OR: 1.66; 95% CI: 1.24, 2.23) (OR: 1.74; 95% CI: 1.27, 2.38)

Depression and anxiety were found to be more prevalent among smokers than nonsmokers in the working population, and researchers say interventions such as mental health promotion and effective smoking cessation programs need to be implemented to reduce the burden of mental disorders in the working population.