Depressive and anxiety symptoms and cigarette smoking among college girls

Objective: We aimed to examine the relationship between depressive and anxiety symptoms and current cigarette smoking among college girls. It was hypothesized that current tobacco use would function as a determinant of depression and anxiety among youths.

Methods: Eight hundred forty-eight female students of a university in the southeast of Turkey participated in this study (mean age 20.81±1.47, min 18- max 25). Sociodemographic data were gathered with a questionnaire. Household income and highest parental education were used as measures of socioeconomic status. Depressive and anxiety symptoms scores of the participants were obtained with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories (BDI and BAI).

Results: The prevalence of smoking among college girls was found 8.9 % (n=75). Girls who live apart from their family showed significantly higher smoking rates than girls living with their family (p=0.012). No differences between smokers and nonsmokers were found in terms of the number of siblings, family income and parental education (p>0.05). Current cigarette users had significantly higher depressive and anxiety symptom scores on the BDI and BAI than nonsmoking girls (p=0.000 and p=0.001). Multivariate analyze showed that current cigarette smoking had significant effects on depressive and anxiety symptoms [F (1.839)=7.76 p=0.000 partial n2=0.018], living with or without family did not affect the scores significantly [F (1.839)=0.37 p=0.53 partial n2=0.000].

Conclusion: We found that cigarette smoking increased the levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms in this study. Research suggests that smoking among college students may be influenced by the presence of clinical depression or depressive symptomatology. A history of depression is associated with a greater likelihood of being a smoker among female, but not male, college students. However, there is also evidence that cigarette smoking might increase the risk of depression. Anxiety disorders may represent an important vector of vulnerability for cigarette use. Understanding the causal links between cigarette use and mental health disorders may help with the development of effective interventions for college aged youth.