Outdoor Air Pollution and Depression in Canada: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study from 2011 to 2016

To assess whether exposure to increased levels of outdoor air pollution is associated with psychological depression, six annual iterations of the Canadian Community Health Survey (n ≈ 127,050) were used to estimate the prevalence of a major depressive episode (2011-2014) or severity of depressive symptoms (2015-2016). Survey data were linked with outdoor air pollution data obtained from the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium, with outdoor air pollution represented by fine particulate matter ≤2.5 micrometers (μm) in diameter (PM_2.5), ozone (O₃), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). Log-binomial models were used to estimate the association between outdoor air pollution and depression, and included adjustment for age, sex, marital status, income, education, employment status, urban versus rural households, cigarette smoking, and chronic illness. No evidence of associations for either depression outcomes were found. Given the generally low levels of outdoor air pollution in Canada, these findings should be generalized with caution. It is possible that a meaningful association with major depression may be observed in regions of the world where the levels of outdoor air pollution are greater, or during high pollution events over brief time intervals. Future research is needed to replicate these findings and to further investigate these associations in other regions and populations.