Marisa I. Vela, B.A., Cristina Hernandez, B.S., Sandra Hernandez, B.S., Shenazar Esmundo, B.S., Claudia M. Toledo-Corral, Ph.D., Health Sciences, California State University Northridge, Northridge, CA
Background: Prior research has shown that populations in highly congested cities are exposed to higher levels of air pollutants such as particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5). In the U.S., ethnic minority groups are more likely to live in highly polluted areas and are exposed to these burdens on a daily basis. Additionally, these high PM2.5 have been linked to mental health disorders. This study seeks to examine if exposure to higher concentration of PM2.5 is associated with increased depressive symptoms among California State University, Northridge students, ages 18 to 25 years with a family history of type 2 diabetes.
Methods: The “Metabolism and Stress Assessment (MeSA)” lab is currently assessing the metabolic risk in young adults and has currently enrolled a sample size of 24 participants with a final goal of 100 participants. Of those participants, 66.7% reported female and 56.5% reported Hispanic or Latino/a with a mean age 21.4 years old (SD=1.8). As part of the MeSA study, geographic area of residence of each participant is determined based on the participantʼs residential address provided during the start of the first visit via a one-time geographic survey. After determining the region of Los Angeles in which they reside, we examined the concentration of PM2.5 based on the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessmentʼs CalEnviroScreen 3.0. We examined the sum of depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), also collected via a one-time survey. For our preliminary analysis, a Pearson correlation coefficient (r) value was utilized to assess the relationship between PM2.5 and depression.
Results: Preliminary results show there was no significant relationship found between PM2.5 and depressive symptoms, (r=-0.14, p=0.45).
Conclusion: Our study is still ongoing and future analyses will aid in our understanding of possible relationship between PM2.5 and depression. The end goal of our study is to identify depression risk in susceptible populations exposed to higher PM2.5; this greater understanding of the issue may influence future health policies regarding environmental pollutants.
*This poster was presented at The American Psychosomatic Society annual meeting. The sample size reflects that of March 2020.
