Mental health among smokers in the U.S. from 2008 to 2013: Diverging trends by socioeconomic status

Abstract

Aims: To investigate the prevalence of depression and psychological distress among daily smokers in the US population from 2008 to 2013 annually and to examine whether trends in the prevalence of depression/psychological distress among smokers and non-smokers differ by socioeconomic status. Methods: Data were drawn from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which includes cross-sectional data on cigarette smoking, depression and psychological distress among a nationally representative sample of adults in the US annually from 2008 to 2013. Results: From 2008 to 2013, the prevalence of depression in the last year among smokers with family incomes of $75,000 or more per year did not change significantly (from 6.5% to 7.1%, p=0.70) nor did the prevalence of psychological distress (from 6.1% to 6.3%, p=0.90). Among smokers with family incomes below $20,000 per year, the prevalence of depression did not change (14.2–15.0%, p=0.64) while psychological distress increased (14.5–18.6%, p=0.06). Conclusions: There appears to be a trend toward increasing psychological distress among smokers of lower socioeconomic status from 2008 to 2013. Our results demonstrate the importance of taking a more fine-grained approach to understanding the role of socioeconomic status in trends in mental health and smoking over time. Greater attention should be devoted to understanding the role of various mental health problems in the stagnation in smoking decline in the general population and particularly among low SES groups, and future research should focus on understanding the potentially differing role ofmental health problems in smoking persistence among various SES groups in the population. Financial support:Workwas supportedbygrant#DA20892-A1 from NIDA (Dr. Goodwin).