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Urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites and depression: a cross-sectional study of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005–2016

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Abstract

Background

The adverse effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs), a group of common environmental pollutants, on mental health are unclear. This study is developed to evaluate the potential association of urinary PAH metabolites with depression in US adults.

Methods

Measurement of 8 urinary PAH metabolites and assessment of depression were available for 9625 adults in the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey 2005–2016. Multiple logistic regression models and weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression models were applied to evaluate the association between urinary PAH metabolites and depression.

Results

Among 9625 individuals with a weighted geometric mean age of 42.63 years, 801 participants suffered from depression. Significant positive dose–response relationships were observed between specific urinary PAH metabolites and the risk of depression after adjusting for potential confounders. Urinary 1-hydroxynaphthalene was positively and dose-dependently associated with the risk of depression among total participants (odds ratio: 1.188; 95% confidence interval: 1.096–1.288). In addition, each 1-unit increase of ln-transformed urinary 1-hydroxynaphthalene, 2-hydroxynaphthalene, 3-hydroxyfluorene, 2-hydroxyfluorene, 1-hydroxyphenanthrene, 2&3-hydroxyphenanthrene, 1-hydroxypyrene, and total PAH metabolites was associated with a 23.3%, 32.6%, 23.3%, 29.4%, 30.8%, 22.8%, 29.4%, and 31.7% increment in the risk of depression in smokers, respectively (all P and P trend < 0.05). Of note, the positive WQS index was also significantly associated with the increased risk of depression in smokers (1.122, 1.059–1.188).

Conclusion

Exposure to PAHs may elevate the risk of depression among US adults. More studies are warranted to investigate the underlying mechanism by which PAHs induce the development of depression.

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Funding

The study was supported by the Major Research Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91843302) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M682425).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Occupational & Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, Hubei, China

    Xiaobing Feng, Ruyi Liang, Dongming Wang, Yanjun Guo, Weihong Qiu, Man Cheng, Tao Xu, Chaoqian Dong, Min Zhou & Weihong Chen

  2. Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, and State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health (Incubating), School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, Hubei, China

    Xiaobing Feng, Ruyi Liang, Dongming Wang, Yanjun Guo, Weihong Qiu, Man Cheng, Tao Xu, Chaoqian Dong, Min Zhou & Weihong Chen

  3. Food and Human Nutritional Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Da Shi

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  1. Xiaobing Feng
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Contributions

X. F. and W. C. designed the research. X. F. conducted the research, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. R. L., D. S., D. W., Y. G., W. Q., M. C., T. X., C. D., M. Z., and W. C. contributed to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the data, and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. W. C. has primary responsibility for final content and is the study guarantor. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The corresponding author attests that all listed authors meet authorship criteria and that no others meeting the criteria have been omitted.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Weihong Chen.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey protocol was approved by the National Center for Health Statistics Ethics Review Board and written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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Not applicable.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Disclaimer

The funder did not play any role in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; nor in the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.

Additional information

Communicated by Lotfi Aleya.

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Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Table S1.

Limit of detection and rate of detection for each NHANES cycle.

Table S2. Sensitivity analyses of the associations between urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolite and depression in US adults (n = 8626).

Table S3. Associations of depression with urinary ∑OH-PAHs and 1-OHNa stratified by selected characteristics in US adults in NHANES 2005–2016 (n = 9625).

Table S4. WQS index weights of urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites for depression in US adults in NHANES 2005–2016 (n = 9625).

Table S5. Sensitivity analyses of the associations between mixed urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites and depression in the WQS regression in US adults in NHANES 2005-2016 (n=8626)

Figure S1. Spearman correlation matrix of urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites in US adults in NHANES 2005–2016 (n = 9625). All correlations were statistically significant (P < 0.001). Abbreviation: 1-OHNa: 1-hydroxynaphthalene; 2-OHNa: 2-hydroxynaphthalene; 2-OHFlu: 2-hydroxyfluorene; 3-OHFlu: 3-hydroxyfluorene; 1-OHPh: 1-hydroxyphenanthrene; 2&3-OHPh: 2-hydroxyphenanthrene and 3-hydroxyphenanthrene; 1-OHP: 1-hydroxypyrene; ∑OH-PAHs: total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites

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Feng, X., Liang, R., Shi, D. et al. Urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites and depression: a cross-sectional study of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005–2016. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 39067–39076 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-18317-1

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