Association between Smoking and Depression among University Students in Bangladesh

Background: Smoking has some terrible consequences on human health, and it has become a major public health concern around the globe. Currently one of the leading preventable causes of premature death and disability in the world is smoking. Depression is a serious problem for young people leads to suicide. Therefore, this study aimed to find out the association between smoking and depression. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at two universities in Dhaka, Bangladesh among 401 students aged 18-26 years. Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES_D) was used for the evaluation of depression status of the respondents. Statistical analysis was performed to see the association between outcome and predictors by using SPSS version 22 software package. Result: Among total students, 301 students lived in nuclear families, and 84.0% of the student’s monthly family income was above 20,000 takas. Although 78.1% were smokers among depressed respondents, there was no significant association between smoking and depression. Significant associations were also not found in the subgroups of males, females, those aged 18-23 years and those aged 24-26 years. Conclusion: There may be heterogeneity in the association between smoking and depression among different culture, different society, different stage of life, etc. Since the association between smoking and depression is an important public health issue, the heterogeneity should be examined by large scale studies.